• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.30-34
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• 1983

The present study was carried out to determine the effect of a radionuclide, cesium-137, in soybean, which is an element released usually from nuclear facilities. Soybean plants were grown on the pots treated with cesium-137 $0.5{\sim}60{\mu}Ci/1kg$ soil and the uptake, translocation and accumulation of the radiocesium in the plant parts were measured at different growth stage. The results are summarized as follows: 1) Visual toxic symptoms on the plants due to treatment of radioactive cesium were not observed up to $60{\mu}Ci/10Kg$ soil in a pot. 2) The uptake of cesium-137 in soybean plant was increased with increment of concentration applied, while the uptake of potassium was proportionally decreased, indicating to have an ion antagonistic relationship between them. 3) The absolute amounts of cesium-137 in the plants were gradually increased by the pod setting stage, but rather reduced at harvesting stage. The accumulation occurred more in the leaves and stems than the soybean seeds. 4) The rate of uptake was ranged from 0.069 to 0.005 with proportional decrease by increasing concentration applied and the rate of Cs-137 translocation from plants to seeds was averaged 38.6% in soybean plant. The concentration coefficient was 0.04 in the soybean seeds from the pots treated with $20{\mu}Ci$ of cesium-137 and decreased with increment of cesium-137 applied.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.40-46
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• 2001

Ozone ($O_3$)-induced changes in chlorophyll content and specific activities of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), guaiacol peroxidase (GPX), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) and glutathione reductase (GR) were investigated in two rice cultivars (Oryza sativa L.) grown under variable nutrient treatments. For this study, two rice cultivars of Ilpumbyeo (IL) and Keumobyeo#l (KM), which were known as resistant and susceptible to $O_3$, respectively, were exposed to $O_3$at 0.15ppm for 30 days and investigated with 10 days interval. The available nutrient regimes were varied by doubling the supply of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) Within a basic fertilizer status (N, P, K; 15, 12, 12kg/l0a$^{-1}$ ). In both cultivars and at all nutrient status, chlorophyll content in $O_3$-treated plants decreased with prolonged treatment period, although higher N, P and K supply with $O_3$ treatment alleviated the decrease in chlorophyll content. The activities of almost all enzymes investigated for this study were decreased during initial stages of $O_3$- exposure except GPX which maintained higher activity throughout the exposure period than the non-treated plant. However, the antioxidant enzymes in $O_3$-treated plants showed almost the same or higher activities on 30 days after $O_3$ - exposure. The most significant changes in activities were observed in GR of the $O_3$-treated leaves. With the prolonged treatment period, the activity of GR at 30 days was increased by 3-8 times compared to those in 10 days. Most of the investigated enzymes showed very similar tendency to $O_3$ treatment in all fertilizer status. There was no observed evidence for enhanced detoxification of $O_3$-derived activated oxygen species in plants grown under higher fertilizer status compared with that in plants grown under basic fertilizer status. The increase in the activities of SOD, APX and GR in rice leaves by relatively long-term treatment with $O_3$ at low concentration is considered to indicate that the plant became adapted to the $O_3$ stress and the protection system increased its capacity to scavenge toxic oxygen species. Our results in two rice cultivars indicated that there was little difference in the activities of antioxidant enzymes between IL and KM, which were known as resistant and susceptible cultivar to $O_3$

• Korean Journal of Plant Tissue Culture
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.305-311
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• 1997

Bacillus thuringiensis, a gram-positive soil bacterium, is characterized by its ability to produce crystalline inclusions during sporulation. The crystal proteins exhibit a highly specific insecticidal activity. An insecticidal crystal protein (ICP), Cry II A, is specifically toxic to both lepidopteran and dipteran insects. In this study, tobacco plants transformed by the cry II A gene have been generated. The Cry II A crystal protein was purified from E. coli JM103 harboring cry II A gene by differential solubility. The activated Cry II A was prepared by tryptic digestion. The purified protoxin (70 kDa) and the activated toxin (50 kDa) were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. To generate the transgenic tobacco having cry II A gene, the cry II A gene was subcloned to a plant expression vector, pSRL2, having two CaMV 35S promoters. The recombinant plasmid was transformed into tobacco (N. tabacum var. Petit Havana SR1) by Agrobacterium-mediated leaf disc transformation. Through the regeneration, six putative transgenic tobacco plants were obtained and three transformants were confirmed by Southern blot analysis. It has been found that one plant had single copy of cry II A gene, another had two copies of the gene, and the third had a truncated gene. After the immunochemical confirmation of cry II A expression in plants, the transgenic tobacco plants will be used to study the genetics of future generation with the insecticidal crystal protein gene cry II A.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.41-44
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• 2004

With a recent well-being boom, our interest in chemical-free vegetables is also increasing. So, some people are trying to take in wild plants chosen by themselves. However, others often come to their rescue in an emergency department after eating them, caused by their misunderstanding poisonous herbs as edible vegetables. We have ever seen two persons carried into the emergency department with bradycardia and shock incurred by his intake by confusion between Caltha palustris and Ligularia fischeri lately. There were symptoms such as epigastric pain, nausea, vomiting and so on in their cases, and the symptoms of bradycardia and hypotension continued. Owing to sustained bradycardia and hypotension states, we applied a dopamine to a patient, and then the in-patient left the hospital two days later. We presumed the cause of the two symptoms appeared in two cases to be a saponin in Caltha palustris. For that reason, if someone has the bradycardia and hypotension symptoms from an unknown cause after taking in wild plants, they have to consider a toxication by the Caltha palustris. Therefore, this paper focused on the issue that unexpected poisoning would have to be prevented by studying about wild plants much more and informing the toxic risk from the plants.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to understand the physiological response and cadmium accumulation of MuS1 transgenic tobacco exposed to high concentration of Cd in soil. For this, a pot experiment was carried out in a greenhouse for a month, with two lines of MuS1 transgenic tobaccos (S4 and S6) and non-transgenic tobacco cultivated in the soils spiked at three different Cd concentrations (0, 60 and 180 mg $kg^{-1}$). Both transgenic and non-transgenic tobacco showed visible toxic symptoms such as chlorosis and leaf roll as treated concentration increased. The net photosynthetic rates of MuS1 plants (S4 and S6) exposed at 180 mg $kg^{-1}$ Cd were 6.3 and $7.7{\mu}mol\;m^{-2}s^{-1}$, being higher than those of the non-transgenic plant ($4.8{\mu}mol\;m^{-2}s^{-1}$). Values of stomatal conductance of MuS1 transgenic plants (0.05 and 0.008 mmol $H_2O\;m^{-2}s^{-1}$) were also higher than those of non-transgenic plant (0.03 mmol $H_2O\;m^{-2}s^{-1}$). In addition, fresh and dry weights of MuS1 transgenic plants were heavier than those of non-transgenic plant. Likewise, MuS1 transgenic plants appeared to be better physiological performance than non-transgenic tobacco when exposed at high concentration of Cd in soil. With regard to metal accumulation, MuS1 transgenic tobaccos accumulated more Cd in their roots than non-transgenic tobacco implying that MuS1 transgenic tobacco is suggested to be used for phytostabilization of heavy metals.

• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.11
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• pp.752-757
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• 2009

Copper is essential but toxic in excess for aerobic organisms. Yeast transcription factor ACE1 functions as a sensor for copper and an inducer for the transcription of CUP1. In addition, ACE1 can activate the transcription of superoxide dismutase gene (sod1) in response to copper. In this study, we introduced the yeast ACE1 into Arabidopsis and analyzed its function in plant. Under high copper stress, the transgenic plants over-expressing ACE1 showed higher survival rate than the wild-type. We also found that over-expression of ACE1 in Arabidopsis increased the activities of SOD and POD, which were beneficial to the cell in copper buffering. Excess copper would suppress the expression of chlorophyll biosynthetic genes in Arabidopsis, RT-PCR analysis revealed that over-expression of ACE1 decrease the suppression. Together, our results indicate that ACE1 may play an important role in response to copper stress in Arabidopsis.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.391-407
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• 2013

Micropollutants emerge in surface water through untreated discharge from sewage and wastewater treatment plants (STPs and WWTPs). Most micropollutants resist the conventional systems in place at water treatment plants (WTPs) and survive the production of tap water. In particular, pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors (ECDs) are micropollutants frequently detected in drinking water. In this review, we summarized the distribution of micropollutants at WTPs and also scrutinized the effectiveness and mechanisms for their removal at each stage of drinking water production. Micropollutants demonstrated clear concentrations in the final effluents of WTPs. Although chronic exposure to micropollutants in drinking water has unclear adverse effects on humans, peer reviews have argued that continuous accumulation in water environments and inappropriate removal at WTPs has the potential to eventually affect human health. Among the available removal mechanisms for micropollutants at WTPs, coagulation alone is unlikely to eliminate the pollutants, but ionized compounds can be adsorbed to natural particles (e.g. clay and colloidal particles) and metal salts in coagulants. Hydrophobicities of micropollutants are a critical factor in adsorption removal using activated carbon. Disinfection can reduce contaminants through oxidation by disinfectants (e.g. ozone, chlorine and ultraviolet light), but unidentified toxic byproducts may result from such treatments. Overall, the persistence of micropollutants in a treatment system is based on the physico-chemical properties of chemicals and the operating conditions of the processes involved. Therefore, monitoring of WTPs and effective elimination process studies for pharmaceuticals and ECDs are required to control micropollutant contamination of drinking water.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.207-224
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• 2011

Diseases caused by plant pathogenic bacteria constitute an emerging threat to global food security. Xanthomonas is a large genus of Gram-negative bacteria that cause disease in several host plants leading to considerable losses in productivity and quality of harvests. Despite the ranges of controlling techniques available, the microbiological safety of economically important crops and crop plants including fruits and vegetables continues to be a major concern to the agriculture industry. On the other hand, many of the currently available antimicrobial agents for agriculture are highly toxic, non-biodegradable and cause extended environmental pollution. Besides, the use of antibiotics has provoked an increased resistance among the bacterial pathogens and their pathovars. Thus, novel efficient and safe remedies for controlling plant bacterial diseases are necessary. There has been an increasing interest worldwide on therapeutic values of natural products such as essential oils, hence the purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the published data on the antibacterial efficacy of essential oils that could be considered suitable for application in agriculture as biocontrol measures against plant pathogenic bacteria of Xanthomonas species. The current knowledge on the use of essential oils to control Xanthomonas bacteria in vitro and in vivo models has been discussed. A brief description on the legal aspects on the use of essential oils against bacterial pathogens has also been presented. Through this review, a mode of antibacterial action of essential oils along with their chemical nature and the area for future research have been thoroughly discussed.

• 한국지역지리학회:학술대회
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• 2009.08a
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• pp.108-115
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• 2009

An increase in oil and gas plants caused by development of process industry have brought into the increase in use of flammable and toxic materials in the complex process under high temperature and pressure. There is always possibility of fire and explosion of dangerous chemicals, which exist as raw materials, intermediates, and finished goods whether used or stored in the industrial plants. Since there is the need of efforts on disaster damage reduction or mitigation process, we have been conducting a research to relate explosion model on the background of real 3D terrain model. By predicting the extent of damage caused by recent disasters, we will be able to improve efficiency of recovery and, sure, to take preventive measure and emergency counterplan in response to unprepared disaster. For disaster damage prediction, it is general to conduct quantitative risk assessment, using engineering model for environmentaldescription of the target area. There are different engineering models, according to type of disaster, to be used for industry disaster such as UVCE (Unconfined Vapor Cloud Explosion), BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Evaporation Vapor Explosion), Fireball and so on, among them.we estimate explosion damage through UVCE model which is used in the event of explosion of high frequency and severe damage. When flammable gas in a tank is released to the air, firing it brings about explosion, then we can assess the effect of explosion. As 3D terrain information data is utilized to predict and estimate the extent of damage for each human and material. 3D terrain data with synthetic environment (SEDRIS) gives us more accurate damage prediction for industrial disaster and this research will show appropriate prediction results.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.229-236
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• 2010

As air pollution has emerged as one of the most pressing urban environmental concerns, many studies have investigated the influence of air pollutants(ex: $O^3$, $NO^2$, $SO^2$, Acid rain, etc.) on roadside trees and urban grove. In Korea, population density started to increase since the industrialization. Since dense population aggravates our living conditions, it's very important for us to preserve and keep a lively and refreshing nature in order to live with green nature in harmony under the current artificial environment-dominating world. In metropolitan cities, the production of pollutants increases in proportion to population growth. The vehicle exhaust gas and air pollutants from cooling and heating systems have been the major causes of acid rain. Furthermore, tire particles which are naturally produced by tire wearing on roads and other toxic substances in exhaust gas have caused a problem in human health directly and indirectly. In fact, a lot of studies have analyzed air pollution, roadside trees and plants in Korea. However, they are mostly limited to covering the influence of air pollution on the growth of plants. No paper has clearly explained why air pollution-resistant or-vulnerable species has shown different reactions yet. Even though a lot of urban roadside trees have died or stopped to grow from time to time, this kind of problem has not been properly examined. This paper is aimed to comparatively analyze physio-ecological characteristic such as photosynthesis, chlorophyll contents, soil volume water figure out their relationship with environmental factors against the expanding roadside trees in Cheong-ju, and provide basic data for management of roadside trees and elaboration of urban environment preservation policies.