• Title/Summary/Keyword: food chain transfer

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Agricultural Methods for Toxicity Alleviation in Metal Contaminated Soils: A Review

  • Arunakumara, Kkiu;Walpola, Buddhi Charana;Yoon, Min-Ho
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.46 no.2
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    • pp.73-80
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    • 2013
  • Due to the fact that possible risk associated with soil-crop-food chain transfer, metal contamination in croplands has become a major topic of wide concern. Accumulation of toxic metals in edible parts of crops grown in contaminated soils has been reported from number of crops including rice, soybean, wheat, maize, and vegetables. Therefore, in order to ensure food safety, measures are needed to be taken in mitigating metal pollution and subsequent uptake by crop plants. Present paper critically reviewed some of the cost effective remediation techniques used in minimizing metal uptake by crops grown in contaminated soils. Liming with different materials such as limestone ($CaCO_3$), burnt lime (CaO), slaked lime [$Ca(OH)_2$], dolomite [$CaMg(CO_3)_2$], and slag ($CaSiO_3$) has been widely used because they could elevate soil pH rendering metals less-bioavailable for plant uptake. Zn fertilization, use of organic amendments, crop rotation and water management are among the other techniques successfully employed in reducing metal uptake by crop plants. However, irrespectively the mitigating measure used, heterogeneous accumulation of metals in different crop species is often reported. The inconsistency might be attributed to the genetic makeup of the crops for selective uptake, their morphological characteristics, position of edible parts on the plants in respect of their distance from roots, crop management practices, the season and to the soil characteristics. However, a sound conclusion in this regard can only be made when more scientific evidence is available on case-specific researches, in particular from long-term field trials which included risks and benefits analysis also for various remediation practices.

Review of Assessing Soil Quality Criteria for Environmentally-Sound Agricultural Practics and Future Use (환경적으로 안전한 농업과 미래용도를 위한 토질 기준 평가 검토)

  • Doug Young Chung
    • Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.127-145
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    • 1998
  • Unlike water or air quality standards that have been established by legislation using potential human health impact as the primary criterion, soil quality depends on the soils primary function and its relevant environmental factors, which is much more site- and soil specific. A properly characterized soil quality assessment system should serve as an indicator of the soil capacity to produce safe and nutritious food, to enhance human and animal health, and to overcome degrative processes. For our proposed example, a high quality soil with regard to maintaining an adequate soil productivity as a food production resources must accommodate soil and water properties, food chain, sustainability and utilization, environment, and profitability, that (i) facilitate water transfer and absorption, (ii) sustain plant growth, (iii) resist physical degradation of soil, (iv) produce a safe food resources, (v) cost-effective agricultural management. Possible soil quality indicators are identified at several levels within the framework for each of these functions. Each indicator is assigned a priority or weight that reflects its relative importance using a multi-objective approach based on principles of systems to be considered. To do this, individual scoring system is differentiated by the several levels from low to very high category or point scoring ranging from 0 to 10, And then weights are multiplied and products are summed to provide an overall soil quality rating based on several physical and chemical indicators. Tlne framework and procedure in developing the soil quality assessment are determined by using information collected from an alternative and conventional farm practices in the regions. The use of an expanded framework for assessing effects of other processes, management practices, or policy issues on soil quality is also considered. To develop one possible form for a soil quality index, we should permit coupling the soil characteristics with assessment system based on soil properties and incoming and resident chemicals. The purpose of this paper is to discuss approaches to defining and assessing soil quality and to suggest the factors to be considered.

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Item Response Analysis of Energy as a Cross-Cutting Concept for Grades 3 to 9 (기초공통개념으로서 에너지에 대한 3~9학년 학생들의 문항 반응 분석)

  • Kim, Youngmin;Kang, Nam-Hwa;Kang, Hunsik;Maeng, Seungho;Lee, Jun-Ki
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.36 no.6
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    • pp.815-833
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    • 2016
  • This study investigated children's (grade 3 to 9) responses to assessment items on energy as a cross-cutting concept in order to get basic information for a learning progression. The assessment consisted of 8 ordered multiple-choice items at the contexts of electric circuit, mechanical energy of falling objects, phase change of matter, dissolution, biological phenomena of a lizard, food chain, radiative equilibrium between Sun and Earth, and the system of water cycling. Children's responses to each item were analyzed with using cross-tabulations in terms of grades and item option levels and Wright map and Differential item functioning based on Rasch modeled item response analysis. The results offered empirical evidence of children's development of understanding energy from relation between energy and its phenomena, types of energy, transfer and conversion of energy, towards conservation and equilibrium of energy for all of eight contexts. Children of each grade did not fully understand energy conservation. As grade goes up, their understandings of energy transfer and conversion were differentiated across the contexts and topics of energy. According to Rasch analysis, children had easier understanding of energy on dissolution and poorer understanding of energy on water cycling than that on other contexts. It was discussed and suggested that the results of this study help us organize science topics with regard to energy when developing new national science curriculum.

Soil-to-Plant Transfer of $^{54}Mn,\;^{60}Co,\;^{85}Sr$ and $^{137}Cs$ Deposited during the Growing Season of Potato (감자의 재배기간 중 토양에 침적한 $^{54}Mn,\;^{60}Co,\;^{85}Sr,\;^{137}Cs$의 작물체로의 전이)

  • Choi, Yong-Ho;Lim, Kwang-Muk;Jun, In;Keum, Dong-Kwon
    • Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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    • v.33 no.3
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    • pp.105-112
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    • 2008
  • To measure the soil-to-plant transfer factors ($TF_a,\;m^2\;kg^{-1}$-fresh) of radionuclides deposited during the growing season of potato, a radioactive solution containing $^{54}Mn,\;^{60}Co,\;^{85}Sr$ and $^{137}Cs$ was applied to the soil surfaces in soil boxes 2 d before seeding and three different times during the plant growth. For the pre-seeding application (PSA), radionuclides were mixed with the topsoil (loamy sand and 5.2 in pH). The plant parts investigated were leaves, stems, tuber skin and tuber flesh. The $TF_a$ values of $^{54}Mn,\;^{60}Co,\;^{85}Sr$ and $^{137}Cs$ from the PSA were in the ranges of $1.9{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}1.5{\times}10^{-2}$, $1.8{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}7.5{\times}10^{-4}$, $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}1.6{\times}10^{-2}$, $1.5{\times}10^{-4}{\sim}3.9{\times}10^{-4}$ respectively, for different plant parts. The TFa values from the growing-time applications were on the whole a few times lower than those from the PSA. For $^{54}Mn,\;^{85}Sr$ and $^{137}Cs$, the $TF_a$ values from the early- or middle-growth-stage application were higher than those from the late-growth-stage application, whereas the opposite was true for $^{60}Co$. Leaves and tuber flesh had the highest and lowest $TF_a$ values, respectively, in most cases. The total uptake from soil by the four plant parts was in the range of $0.05{\sim}3.16%$. In the third year following the PSA, the $TF_a$ values of $^{54}Mn,\;^{60}Co$ and $^{137}Cs$ were $11{\sim}25%$, $21{\sim}25%$ and $38{\sim}67%$ of those in the first year, respectively, depending on the plant parts. The present results can be used for estimating the radiological impact of an acute radioactive deposition during the growing season of potato and for testing the validity of relevant food-chain models.

Effect of Agitation on Production of Methylan and Rheological Characteristics of Methylan Fermentation Broth (다당류, 메틸란, 발효밴잉액의 점성특성과 메틸란 생산에 미치는 교반속도의 영향)

  • Oh, Deok-Kun;Lim, Hyun-Soo;Kim, Jung-Hoe
    • Applied Biological Chemistry
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    • v.38 no.3
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    • pp.191-195
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    • 1995
  • Production of a high viscosity exoploysaccharide, methylan, by Methylobacterium organophilum from methanol was carried out in fed-batch cultures and the rheological properties of methylan fermentation broth were studied. Bacterial biomass showed little influence on viscosity, but the accumulation of methylan caused the increase of viscosity. With proceeding fermention, the viscosity at the same concentration of methylan was significantly increased and methylan solution showed slightly higher pseudoplasticity. The composition changes of methylan were investigated at various fermentation times. Contents of total sugar, reducing sugar and methylan were decreased but contents of acids(pyruvic acid, uronic acid and acetic acid) were increased with the culture time. It was considered that the increased content of acids resulted in the increase of the hyrodynamic domain in the solution due to charge repulsion. Consequently, the solution viscosity increased in propotion to the acids contents of methylan. Cell growth and methylan production were severely decreased by the limitation of dissolved oxygen. However, the cellular activity for methylan production was almost constant regardless of the level of dissolved oxygen. As a result, the high speed of agitation increased the methylan production, the specific production rate of methylan, and the methylan yield of the cell.

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Effect of Latent Heat Material Placement on Inside Temperature Uniformity of Insulated Transfer Boxes (단열용기의 잠열재 배치에 따른 내부 온도 균일성에 대한 영향)

  • HyungYong Ji;Dong-Yeol Chung;Seuk Cheun Choi;Joeng-Yeol Kim
    • KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.27-33
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    • 2023
  • An optimized design of the transportation insulated box must be considered to control the thermal damage in order to maintain the fresh condition for temperature-sensitive medicine and frozen food safety. The inside temperature of the insulated box is a natural convection enclosure state, thermal stratification naturally occurs as time passes in case of with outside heat load. The latent heat material (LHM) placement inside the box maintains the target temperature of the product for temperature fluctuations during transport, and LHM application is a common and efficient method. In this work, inside temperature stratification in an insulated box depending on the LHM pack position is numerically simulated and experimented. The insulated box is made up of vacuum insulation panel (VIP), and LHM modules are placed over six faces inside the box, with the same weight. The temperature curves for 72 hrs as experiment results clearly show the temperature stratification in the upper, middle, and lower at the LHM melting time region. However, the temperature stratification state is uniformly changed in accordance with the condition of the upper and lower placement weight of the LHM pack. And also, the temperature uniformity by changed placement weight of LHM has an effect on maintaining time for target air temperature inside the box. These results provide information on the optimized design of the insulated box with LHM.

Research and Development Trends on Omega-3 Fatty Acid Fortified Foodstuffs (오메가 3계 지방산 강화 식품류의 연구개발 동향)

  • 이희애;유익종;이복희
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.161-174
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    • 1997
  • Omega-3 fatty acids have been major research interests in medical and nutritional science relating to life sciences since after the epidemiologic data on Green3and Eskimos reported by several researchers clearly showed fewer per capita deaths from heart diseases and a lower incidence of adult diseases. Linolenic acid(LNA) is an essential fatty acid for human beings as well as linoleic acid(LA) due to the fact that vertebrates lack an enzyme required to incorporate a double bond beyond carbon 9 in the chain. In addition the ratio of omega-6 and 3 fatty acids seems to be important in terms of alleviation of heart diseases since LA and LNA competes for the metabolic pathways of eicosanoids synthesis. High consumption of omega-3 fatty acids in seafoods may control heart diseases by reducing blood cholesterol, triglyceride, VLDL, LDL and increasing HDL and by inhibiting plaque development through the formation of antiaggregatory substances like PGI$_2$, PGI$_3$ and TXA$_3$ metabolized from LNA. Omega 3 fatty acids also play an important role in neuronal developments and visual functioning, in turn influence learning behaviors. Current dietary sources of omega-3 fatty acids are limited mostly to seafoods, leafy vegetables, marine and some seed oils and the most appropriate way to provide omega-3 fatty acids is as a part of the normal dietary regimen. The efforts to enhance the intake of omega-3 fatty acids due to several beneficial effects have been made nowadays by way of food processing technology. Two different ways can be applied: one is add Purified and concentrated omega-3 fatty acids into foods and the other is to produce foods with high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids by raising animals with specially formulated feed best for the transfer of omega-3 fatty acids. Recently, items of manufactured and marketed omega-3 fatty acids fortified foodstuffs are pork, milk, cheese, egg, formula milk and ham. In domestic food market, many of them are distributed already, but problem is that nutritional informations on the amounts of omega-3 fatty acids are not presented on the labeling, which might cause distrust of consumers on those products, result in lower sales volumes. It would be very much wise if we consume natural products, result in lower sales volumes. It would be very much wise if we consume natural products high in omega-3 fatty acids to Promote health related to many types of adult diseases rather than processed foods fortified with omega-3 fatty acids.

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