• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.887-896
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• 2023

The inflammatory response have been considered as one of important targets for cancer treatment because they play a key role during all steps of tumor development including initiation, promotion, malignant conversion and progression. To investigate the anti-inflammatory response during anti-tumor activity of an aqueous extracts of Ecklonia cava (AEC), alterations on the distribution of mast cells and the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), nuclear factor (NF)-κB, inflammasome compositional protein and inflammatory cytokines were examined in CT26 colon tumor-bearing BALB/cKorl syngeneic mice after administrating AEC for five weeks. After treatment of AEC, total weight of tumor and necrotic region of tumor section were significantly decreased compared to vehicle treated group. The number of infiltered mast cells was higher in AEC treated group than vehicle treated group, while the expression levels of COX-2 and iNOS were decreased in AEC treated group. Also, similar decrease pattern were detected in the expression levels of NF-κB, NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3), apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC) and caspase-1 (Cas-1) after AEC treatment although the decrease rate was varied. Furthermore, the mRNA expressions of three inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1α (IL-1α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were remarkably decreased in AEC treated group compared to vehicle treated group. These results suggest that inhibition of inflammatory response may be tightly associated with anti-tumor activity of AEC in CT26 colon tumor-bearing BALB/cKorl syngeneic mice.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.897-904
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• 2023

This study was done to develope genetic markers with the unique characteristics of genes according to the genomic information of Bacillus velezensis K10. B. velezensis K10 maintained a total of 4,159,835 bps, which was found to encode 5,136 open reading frames (orfs). B. velezensis K10 was found to have much more gene migration due to external factors overall compared to standard strain B. velezensis JS25R. In order to discover genetic selection markers, orfs on the genome to be easily induced to gene mutation were surveyed such as recombinase, integrase, transposase, and phage-related genes. As a result of the investigation, 9 candidate markers were isolated with high possibility as genetic selection markers. Although a part in the various origin's areas showed specificities in comparison with homology, the selected markers were all existed in phage-related areas because they were relatively lower homologies in phage-related genes. PCR analysis was done on B. licheniformis K12, B. velezensis K10, B. subtilis, and B. cereus to establish them as inter-species candidate selection markers. As a result, it was confirmed that B. velezensis K10-specific PCR products were formed in a total of 6 primer sets such as BV3 and BV5 to 9. On the other hand, analysis at the subspecies level observed the formation of B. velezensis K10-specific PCR products in 4 primer sets such as BV3, 5, 8, and 9. Among them, since BV5 and BV8 were detected by very specific results, we suggest that BV5 and 8 can be used as B. velezensis K10 gene selection markers at the species and sub-species level.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.915-922
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• 2023

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are widespread in a variety of environments including fermented dairy products, gastroinstetinal and urogenital tracts of human and animals, plant, soil and water. Leuconostoc mesenteroides DB3 was detected by the strongest antibacterial activities among 24 Leuconostoc strains isolated from Camellia japonica flowers. Acid tolerance of L. mesenteroides DB3 existed up to pH 2.5, but the resistance did not show at pH 2.0, which relatively excellent acid resistance existed. Bile acid tolerance was very stable within the test range to 1.2%. L. mesenteroides DB3 exhibited the optimal growth at 30℃, and showed a slight slow growth when compared with L. mesenteroides KCTC3505, which reached a stationary phase at 18 hr. The pH was changed along with the growth curve, but was maintained above pH 3.98. L. mesenteroides DB3 had higher initial antibacterial activities when compared to L. mesenteroides KCTC3505, but it showed similar activities with the standard strain after the latter part of the logarithmic growth phase. Although lactic acid production in L. mesenteroides DB3 was induced by lower amount in the initial part to the standard strain, it was exhibited by similar amounts after the late logarithmic growth phase. Muicin adhesion of L. mesenteroides DB-3 maintained superior to L. mesenteroides KCTC3505. Both strains showed excellent emulsification ability for kerosene. In summary, we evaluate that L. mesenteroides DB-3 has a high potential for application as probiotics owing to its excellent antibacterial activity, acid resistance, bile acid resistance, and muicin adhesion.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1353-1369
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• 2023

In the event of a disaster accident at sea, the scale of damage will vary due to weather effects such as wind, currents, and tidal waves, and it is obligatory to minimize the scale of damage by establishing appropriate control plans through quick on-site identification. In particular, it is difficult to identify pollutants that exist in a thin film at sea surface due to their relatively low viscosity and surface tension among pollutants discharged into the sea. Therefore, this study aims to develop an algorithm to detect suspended pollutants on the sea surface in RGB images using imaging equipment that can be easily used in the field, and to evaluate the performance of the algorithm using input data obtained from actual waters. The developed algorithm uses image enhancement techniques to improve the contrast between the intensity values of pollutants and general sea surfaces, and through histogram analysis, the background threshold is found,suspended solids other than pollutants are removed, and finally pollutants are classified. In this study, a real sea test using substitute materials was performed to evaluate the performance of the developed algorithm, and most of the suspended marine pollutants were detected, but the false detection area occurred in places with strong waves. However, the detection results are about three times better than the detection method using a single threshold in the existing algorithm. Through the results of this R&D, it is expected to be useful for on-site control response activities by detecting suspended marine pollutants that were difficult to identify with the naked eye at existing sites.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_1
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• pp.1309-1320
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• 2023

The technological development and popularization of mobile devices have developed so that users can check their location anywhere and use the Internet. However, in the case of indoors, the Internet can be used smoothly, but the global positioning system (GPS) function is difficult to use. There is an increasing need to provide real-time location information in shaded areas where GPS is not received, such as department stores, museums, conference halls, schools, and tunnels, which are indoor public places. Accordingly, research on the recent indoor positioning technology based on light detection and ranging (LiDAR) equipment is increasing to build a landmark database. Focusing on the accessibility of building a landmark database, this study attempted to develop a technique for estimating the user's location by using a single image taken of a landmark based on a mobile device and the landmark database information constructed in advance. First, a landmark database was constructed. In order to estimate the user's location only with the mobile image photographing the landmark, it is essential to detect the landmark from the mobile image, and to acquire the ground coordinates of the points with fixed characteristics from the detected landmark. In the second step, by applying the bag of words (BoW) image search technology, the landmark photographed by the mobile image among the landmark database was searched up to a similar 4th place. In the third step, one of the four candidate landmarks searched through the scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) feature point extraction technique and Homography random sample consensus(RANSAC) was selected, and at this time, filtering was performed once more based on the number of matching points through threshold setting. In the fourth step, the landmark image was projected onto the mobile image through the Homography matrix between the corresponding landmark and the mobile image to detect the area of the landmark and the corner. Finally, the user's location was estimated through the location estimation technique. As a result of analyzing the performance of the technology, the landmark search performance was measured to be about 86%. As a result of comparing the location estimation result with the user's actual ground coordinate, it was confirmed that it had a horizontal location accuracy of about 0.56 m, and it was confirmed that the user's location could be estimated with a mobile image by constructing a landmark database without separate expensive equipment.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.6_2
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• pp.1651-1669
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• 2023

Sea ice currently covers approximately 7% of the world's ocean area, primarily concentrated in polar and high-altitude regions, subject to seasonal and annual variations. It is very important to analyze the area and type classification of sea ice through time series monitoring because sea ice is formed in various types on a large spatial scale, and oil and gas exploration and other marine activities are rapidly increasing. Currently, research on the type and area of sea ice is being conducted based on high-resolution satellite images and field measurement data, but there is a limit to sea ice monitoring by acquiring field measurement data. High-resolution optical satellite images can visually detect and identify types of sea ice in a wide range and can compensate for gaps in sea ice monitoring using Geostationary Ocean Color Imager-II (GOCI-II), an ocean satellite with short time resolution. This study tried to find out the possibility of utilizing sea ice monitoring by training a rule-based machine learning model based on learning data produced using high-resolution optical satellite images and performing detection on GOCI-II images. Learning materials were extracted from Liaodong Bay in the Bohai Sea from 2021 to 2022, and a Random Forest (RF) model using GOCI-II was constructed to compare qualitative and quantitative with sea ice areas obtained from existing normalized difference snow index (NDSI) based and high-resolution satellite images. Unlike NDSI index-based results, which underestimated the sea ice area, this study detected relatively detailed sea ice areas and confirmed that sea ice can be classified by type, enabling sea ice monitoring. If the accuracy of the detection model is improved through the construction of continuous learning materials and influencing factors on sea ice formation in the future, it is expected that it can be used in the field of sea ice monitoring in high-altitude ocean areas.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.39.1-39.15
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• 2023

DNA barcoding without assessing reliability and validity causes taxonomic errors of species identification, which is responsible for disruptions of their conservation and aquaculture industry. Although DNA barcoding facilitates molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis of species, its availability in clariid catfish lineage remains uncertain. In this study, DNA barcoding was developed and validated for clariid catfish. 2,970 barcode sequences from mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) and cytochrome b (Cytb) genes and D-loop sequences were analyzed for 37 clariid catfish species. The highest intraspecific nearest neighbor distances were 85.47%, 98.03%, and 89.10% for COI, Cytb, and D-loop sequences, respectively. This suggests that the Cytb gene is the most appropriate for identifying clariid catfish and can serve as a standard region for DNA barcoding. A positive barcoding gap between interspecific and intraspecific sequence divergence was observed in the Cytb dataset but not in the COI and D-loop datasets. Intraspecific variation was typically less than 4.4%, whereas interspecific variation was generally more than 66.9%. However, a species complex was detected in walking catfish and significant intraspecific sequence divergence was observed in North African catfish. These findings suggest the need to focus on developing a DNA barcoding system for classifying clariid catfish properly and to validate its efficacy for a wider range of clariid catfish. With an enriched database of multiple sequences from a target species and its genus, species identification can be more accurate and biodiversity assessment of the species can be facilitated.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_4
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• pp.1097-1109
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• 2023

Urban is an area where small-scale changes to individual buildings occur frequently. An existing urban building database requires periodic updating to increase its usability. However, there are limitations in data collection for building changes over a wide urban. In this study, we check the possibility of detecting building changes and updating a building database by using satellite images that can capture a wide urban region by a single image. For this purpose, building areas in a satellite image are first extracted by projecting 3D coordinates of building corners available in a building database onto the image. Building areas are then divided into roof and facade areas. By comparing textures of the roof areas projected, building changes such as height change or building removal can be detected. New height values are estimated by adjusting building heights until projected roofs align to actual roofs observed in the image. If the projected image appeared in the image while no building is observed, it corresponds to a demolished building. By checking buildings in the original image whose roofs and facades areas are not projected, new buildings are identified. Based on these results, the building database is updated by the three categories of height update, building deletion, or new building creation. This method was tested with a KOMPSAT-3A image over Incheon Metropolitan City and Incheon building database available in public. Building change detection and building database update was carried out. Updated building corners were then projected to another KOMPSAT-3 image. It was confirmed that building areas projected by updated building information agreed with actual buildings in the image very well. Through this study, the possibility of semi-automatic building change detection and building database update based on single satellite image was confirmed. In the future, follow-up research is needed on technology to enhance computational automation of the proposed method.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.325-334
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• 2023

The invasive red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, is native to south-central United States and northeastern Mexico. Recently, it has been being spreading in the wild in South Korea. However, its primary sources, introduction routes, establishment, and expansion in South Korea remain unclear. Here, we analyzed genetic diversity and population genetic structures of its domestic natural populations during early invasion, commercial stock from local aquaria (a suspected introduction source), and original United States population using mitochondrial COI gene sequences for 267 individuals and eight microsatellite markers for 158 individuals. Natural and commercial populations of P. clarkii showed reduced genetic diversity (e.g., haplotype diversity and allelic richness). The highest genetic diversity was observed in one original source population based on both genetic markers. Despite a large number of individuals in commercial aquaria, we detected remarkably low genetic diversity and only three haplotypes among 226 individuals, suggesting an inbred population likely originating from a small founder group. Additionally, the low genetic diversity in the natural population indicates a small effective population size during early establishment of P. clarkii in South Korea. Interestingly, genetic differentiation between natural populations and the United States population was lower than that between natural populations and aquarium populations. This suggests that various genetic types from the United States likely have entered different domestic aquariums, leading to distinct natural populations through separate pathways. Results of our study will provide an insight on the level of genetic divergence and population differentiation during the initial stage of invasion of non-indigenous species into new environments.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2024

In this study, we investigated the migration level of items specified in the Korean Standards and Specifications for Utensils, Containers, and Packages (Ministry of Food and Drug Safety Notification) for 50 utensils and hygiene products made of biodegradable resins. Our results revealed that one Polylactide (PLA) baby tableware contained 20 mg/L in consumption of potassium permanganate, exceeding the standard of 10 mg/L or less. In all other samples, formaldehyde, lead (Pb), and arsenic (As) levels could be considered very safe and remained below the standard. Moreover, we tested the PLA baby tablewares (n = 21) for migration into a food simulant (4% v/v acetic acid) upon repeated elution at 100℃ for 30 min or UV irradiation for 2 h. We detected increased formaldehyde and As amounts at the repeated 100℃ treatment for 30 min compared to those upon repeated UV irradiation. However, the migration level was markedly low under both conditions. Furthermore, the Estimated Daily Intake (EDI) calculated on an infant-to-child basis from the formaldehyde and As migration at 100℃ for 30 min in the PLA sample was at the maximum value, i.e., 6.0×10^-4 mg/kg b.w./day and 1.3×10^-1 ㎍/kg b.w./day, corresponding to 0.40% and 10.42% of the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI, 0.15 mg/kg b.w./day) and Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI, 9.0 ㎍/kg b.w./week), respectively. Therefore, in this study, we confirmed that biodegradable synthetic resins are safe to use for food.