• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• 제27권1호
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• pp.52-63
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• 2013

Benthic macroinvertebrates were investigated in Yongdam-dam and Hapcheon-dam resions from June to October 2011, Korea. Yongdam-dam and Hapcheon-dam are geographically contiguous, but they are classified as other water system. Experiment site(YE-1, 2, 3; HE-1, 2, 3) which is thought to be affected by dam, control site(YC-1, 2; HC-1, 2) which is thought not to be affected by dam were selected. Species composition, macroinvertebrate communities, composition of the functional feeding groups, habitat orientied groups and community stability were assessed Yongdam-dam and Hapcheon-dam regions. Ten sites were selected for quantitative(Surber sampler $30cm{\times}30cm$) of benthic macroinvertebrates. As a results, a total of 6,369 individuals including 69 species, 33 families, 12 orders, 6 classes and 4 phyla were recognized in Yongdam-dam region. Also, a total of 5,728 individuals including 81 species, 44 families, 13 orders, 5 classes and 4 phyla were recognized in Hapcheon-dam region. Dominance index was 0.27~0.50(mean${\pm}$SD $0.38{\pm}0.09$), diversity index was 2.22~2.97($2.67{\pm}0.29$), evenness index was 0.63~0.76($0.72{\pm}0.06$) and richness index was 4.43~7.06($5.69{\pm}0.99$) in Yongdam-dam region. Dominance index was 0.40~0.81($0.59{\pm}0.18$), diversity index was 1.40~2.39($2.00{\pm}0.43$), evenness index was 0.38~0.68($0.56{\pm}0.13$) and richness index was 4.04~5.80($4.95{\pm}0.70$) in Hapcheon-dam region. In the functional feeding groups, filtering-collectors and gathering-collectors were the highest in the whole sites. In the habitat orientied groups, burrowers, clingers and swimmers were considerably occupied in all sites. As a result of community stability analysis, experiment sites has been identified much as species high resistance and resilience to environmental changes in Yongdam-dam. Control sites has been identified much as species low resistance and resilience to environmental changes in Hapcheon-dam. Species belonging to the Igroup is considered to be important in the river ecosystem stability of large dams downstream areas.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.404-410
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• 2009

We investigated the physicochemical stabilities and biological activities of ethanol- extracted pigment from marine bacteria Pseudoalteromonas sp. Ju11-1 and Pseudoalteromonas sp. Ju14. The bacterial pigment of strain Ju11-1 was very stable at pH 5.0 below $25^{\circ}C$. The stability of the pigment showed higher stability in the presence of metal ions such as $Cu^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$. The pigment has activity of free-radical scavenging ($IC_{50}$ $95.2{\mu}g$/ml) and the protective antioxidant effect ($ED_{50}$ $82.3{\mu}g$/ml) against DNA damage in human lymphocytes. The bacterial pigment of strain Ju14 was very stable at pH range between 4.0 and 8.0 below $40^{\circ}C$. In the presence of light, the pigment was also very stable, showing more than 90 percent of remaining absorbance during 14 days at $25^{\circ}C$. The stability of the pigment, when metal ions were present, showed higher stability in all examined metal ions except for $Fe^{2+}$, $Al^{3+}$, and $Cu^{2+}$, especially in the presence of $Na^+$. The pigment has activity of freeradical scavenging ($IC_{50}$ $208.6{\mu}g$/ml) and the protective antioxidant effect ($ED_{50}$ $ 96.4{\mu}g$/m) against DNA damage in human lymphocytes. The result indicates that the bacterial pigments from marine bacteria, Pseudoalteromonas sp. Ju11-1 and Pseudoalteromonas sp. Ju14 showed higher physicochemical stability and significant effects for reduction in oxidative DNA damage. Therefore, the results suggest that these bacterial pigments could be used as a natural colorant having the advantages of antioxidant.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• 제51권2호
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• pp.214-220
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• 2013

Hydrophobic coating on a silicate-based yellow phosphor ($Sr_2SiO_4:Eu^{2+}$) was carried out by using hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) precursor in an atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge plasma reactor, eventually to improve the long-term stability and reliability of the phosphor. The phosphor powder samples were characterized by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), a transmission electron microscope (TEM), a fluorescence spectrophotometer and a contact angle analyzer. After the coating was prepared, the contact angle of the phosphor powder increased to $133.0^{\circ}$ for water and to $140.5^{\circ}$ for glycerol, indicating that a hydrophobic layer was formed on its surface. The phosphor coated with HMDSO exhibited photoluminescence enhancement up to 7.8%. The SEM and TEM images of the phosphor powder revealed that the plasma coating led to a morphological change from grain-like structure to smooth surface with 31~46 nm thick hydrophobic layer. The light emitting diode (3528 1 chip LED) fabricated with the coated phosphor showed a substantial enhancement in the reliability under a special test condition at $85^{\circ}C$ and 85% relative humidity for 1,000 h (85/85 testing). The plasma-mediated method proposed in this work may be applicable to the formation of 3-dimensional coating layer on irregular-shaped phosphor powder, thereby improving the reliability.

• Journal of Life Science
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• 제19권12호
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• pp.1758-1763
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• 2009

Biological assessments of benthic macroinvertebrates community structure were carried out in ten reservoir inflow and outflow areas of the Nakdong river system from April 2008 to August 2008. The collected benthic macroinvertebrates from the surveyed sites were 9,427.6 inds./$m^2$, 42 species belonging to 29 families and 16 orders. A dominant species was Chironomus sp. and a subdominant species was Ecdyonurus levis. In the all sites, Ephemeroptera had the most number of species (17.81%) and Diptera had the most number of individuals (64.00%). Dominance, species diversity, species richness, and species evenness indexes were 0.68, 2.42, 2.96 and 0.54, respectively. The numbers of benthic macroinvertebrates species in each surveyed site were from 21 (site 9 Jilnal wetland) to 51 (site 2 Yeongcheon reservoir). As a result of an analysis about relative resistance and resilience of stability factors, the most popular group was group I with high indices in both resistance and resilience. Site 7 (Beongae wetland) and site 8 (Jangcheok reservoir) had the highest similarity in the result of cluster analysis using the surveyed benthic macroinvertebrates.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• 제60권4호
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• pp.351-355
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• 2017

Tolaasin, peptide toxin produced by Pseudomonas tolaasii, causes a brown blotch disease on the cultivated mushrooms. Tolaasin peptides form membrane pores and disrupt cellular membrane structure. Molecular actions of tolaasin consist of the aggregation of peptide molecules, binding to the cell membrane, and formation of membrane pores. Therefore, the inhibitions of any of these actions are able to suppress the blotch disease. We have isolated and identified several tolaasin inhibitors (named tolaasin inhibitory factors, TIF) from food additives. TIFs were able to suppress the blotch-formation by the pathogen inoculated to the mushrooms. In this study, TIFs were incubated under various conditions and their activities for the inhibition of tolaasin-induced hemolytic activity were investigated. Since TIFs are unsaturated carbon compounds, they were sensitive to the air exposure and light irradiation. In the anaerobic conditions, TIFs were stable and their activities were decreased by 10% for three months. However, near 90% of TIF activity was suppressed by two weeks in the presence of air and sun light. Temperature did not show any significant effects on the activity of TIF, since storages at 5, 25, $45^{\circ}C$ did not show any difference. Therefore, for the stable storage of TIF compounds, container should be designed to be dark and air-tight.

• KSBB Journal
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.246-252
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• 2009

Rice cells were transformed to express human cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4-immunoglobulin (hCTLA4Ig) using RAmy3D promoter. hCTLA4Ig was produced and secreted into culture media inducibly when sugar was depleted. The obstacles of this system are the cell death and release of proteases by sugar starvation. These problems resulted in the losses of stability and productivity of hCTLA4Ig. Therefore, the effects of proline as an inhibitor of cell death were investigated. When 4 mM proline was added in sugar-free media, the cell death and release of proteases were reduced. As a consequence, the production of hCTLA4Ig was enhanced. In addition, the effects of protein stabilizers such as gelling agents were studied. It was found that the application of 0.01 g/L gelatin led to an increase in hCTLA4Ig production. This increase might be originated from the stabilization of hCTLA4Ig. In conclusion, the production of hCTLA4Ig could be enhanced by the additions of proline and gelatin in transgenic rice cell cultures.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.276-285
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• 2006

When polluted stream water was treated with biological aerated filter(BAF) in pilot plant, all operation with 90, 60, 45 and 30 min of EBCT at fixed $0.1m^3air/m^2min$ of aeration showed 80% or higher treatment efficiency of particle materials(SS, turbidity and Chl.-a) and 85% or higher efficiency of ammonia nitrogen removal. It was thought that, in case of BOD, biological stability may sufficiently be assured with BAF because grade III or IV inflow water was changed to grade I for outflow water. In case of $COD_{Mn}$, about 60% of removal efficiency was found. When the mechanism of the result was investigated, about 30% of COD materials was produced by algae clogged in the reactor. There was almost no biological decomposition because specific substrate utilization rate of algogenic organic materials were $0.0245mg{\cdot}COD_{Mn}/mg{\cdot}VSS{\cdot}day$, thus partial backwashing(washing the media in 1 m upper of the reactor once a day) was required. It is thought that elevation of removal rate about 10% of $COD_{Mn}$ and 5.5% of $BOD_5$ could be obtained with partial backwashing resulting in assurance of biologically more stable raw water and that saving backwashing water may be significant.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• 제51권3호
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• pp.330-334
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• 2013

Mixtures of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-HFP) and silica nanoparticles are coated on the surface of a silk fabrics separator. The coated separators are finally prepared by injecting an electrolyte solution and then characterized for use of lithium-ion battery separator/electrolyte. In the preparation, various contents of dibutylphthalate (DBP) as a plasticizer are used to enhance the formation of micropores within the coated membrane. The coated silk fabrics separators are characterized in terms of ionic conductivity, drenching rate, and electrochemical stability, and the charge-discharge profiles of lithium-ion batteries adopting the coated separators are also examined. As a result, the coated silk fabrics separator prepared using DBP 40~50 wt% and silica shows the superior separator properties and high-rate capability. This is due to (i) high sustainability of silk fabrics, (ii) the formation of micropores with the coated layer membrane by DBP, (iii) increase in drenching rate by silica nanoparticles to involve great enhancements in specific surface area and ionic conductivity.

• Journal of Breast Cancer
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.363-370
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• 2018

Purpose: Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer among women worldwide, and therefore, improved approaches for its early detection are urgently needed. As microRNAs (miRNAs) are increasingly recognized as critical regulators in tumorigenesis and possess excellent stability in plasma, this study focused on using miRNAs to develop a method for identifying noninvasive biomarkers. Methods: To discover critical candidates, differential expression analysis was performed on tissue-originated miRNA profiles of 409 early breast cancer patients and 87 healthy controls from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. We selected candidates from the differentially expressed miRNAs and then evaluated every possible molecular signature formed by the candidates. The best signature was validated in independent serum samples from 113 early breast cancer patients and 47 healthy controls using reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: The miRNA candidates in our method were revealed to be associated with breast cancer according to previous studies and showed potential as useful biomarkers. When validated in independent serum samples, the area under curve of the final miRNA signature (miR-21-3p, miR-21-5p, and miR-99a-5p) was 0.895. Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 97.9% and 73.5%, respectively. Conclusion: The present study established a novel and effective method to identify biomarkers for early breast cancer. And the method, is also suitable for other cancer types. Furthermore, a combination of three miRNAs was identified as a prospective biomarker for breast cancer early detection.

• Clean Technology
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.220-228
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• 2010

Four Keggin-type heteropolyacids, $H_nXM_{12}O_{40}$(X = P and Si, M = W and Mo) that were substituted with heteroatom and polyatom were applied to the dehydration reaction of fructose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). The results showed that the acid became stronger when the heteroatom and polyatom were substituted with P and W than the cases of Si and Mo, respectively. However, the amount of acidic sites increased with the decrease in the acid strength, resulting in the change of the catalytic activity of heteropolyacids in the dehydration reaction. The experimental results revealed that four different heteropolyacids produced similar amounts of HMF via the dehydration reaction of fructose due to the counterbalancing effect between the amount of active sites, which is related to the catalytic activity of heteropolyacids, and the softness of polyanion. In addition, it was observed that the prepared heteropolyacids showed good structural stability after heat treatment at $200^{\circ}C$.