• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.313-319
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• 2009

The marine microalga Spirulina maxima was extracted using water or ethanol at 100 or $80^{\circ}C$ and by ultrasonification in water at $60^{\circ}C$. The ultrasonification technique generated the highest yield (19.8%). To be therapeutically useful, the extraction should yield a product with low cytotoxicity and high immunity against skin infections. The cytotoxicity of all extracts (1.0 mg/mL) was below 25%. Moreover, the cytotoxicity of the extract generated by ultrasonification was 5%. Extracts prepared in the described manners could inhibit hyaluronidase activity by up to 40% compared to the control. Increased growth of human B, T and NK cells and an increase in cytokine secretion were observed, confirming the interrelationship between both human immune and skin immune activity. The extract prepared by ultrasonification increased the growth of human B, T and NK cells up to $10.3{\times}10^4$ cells/mL, $11.3{\times}10^4$ cells/mL and $19.1{\times}10^4$ cells/mL, respectively. The extract prepared by ultrasonification also greatly increased the secretion of both IL-6 and $TNF-{\alpha}$. Moreover, it was estimated that protein, Na and leucine occupy a high ratio. Accordingly, this study has confirmed that extracts prepared as described have the potential to effectively increase skin immunity.

• Clean Technology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.112-118
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• 2018

Thermo-responsive polymers that exhibit phase transition in response to temperature change can be used as materials for smart windows because they can control solar light transmission depending on the outside temperature. The development of thermo-responsive polymers for smart windows that can be used over a wide temperature range is desirable. To obtain high performance smart windows materials, three-dimensional thermo-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) gels were prepared by free radical polymerization from monomer N-isopropylacrylamide, N, N'-methylenebis acrylamide (MBAm) as a crosslinking agent, ammonium persulfate (APS) as a strong oxidizing agent/tetramethylene diamine as a catalyst, and a mixture of two solvents (water/glycerol). This study examined the effect of glycerol content on the lower critical solution temperature (LCST), freezing temperature and the solar light transmittance of crosslinked PNIPAm gel films. The LCST and freezing temperature of PNIPAm gel films were found to be significantly decreased from 34.3 and $6.3^{\circ}C$ to 28.2 and $-6.5^{\circ}C$ with increasing glycerol content from 0 wt% to 10 wt%, respectively. It was found that the transparent PNIPAm gel films at $25^{\circ}C$ (temperature < LCST) were converted to translucent gels at higher temperature ($45^{\circ}C$) (temperature > LCST). These results suggested that the crosslinked PNIPAm gel materials prepared in this study could have high potential for application in smart glass materials.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.13-21
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• 2006

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread soil contaminants and major environmental concerns. PAHs have extremely low water solubility and are strongly sorbed to soil. A potential technology for remediation of PAHcontaminated soils is a soil washing with surfactant solutions. While the use of surfactants significantly enhances the performance of soil remediation, operation costs are increased. Selective adsorption of PAHs by activated carbons is proposed to reuse the surfactants in the soil-washing process. The adsorption isotherms of pure chemicals (Triton X-100 and phenanthrene) onto three granular activated carbons were obtained. The selective adsorption of phenanthrene in mixed solution was examined at various concentrations of phenanthrene and Triton X-100. The selectivity results were discussed with pore size distribution of activated carbons and molecular sizes of phenanthrene and the Triton X-100 monomer. The selectivity for phenanthrene was much larger than 1 regardless of the particle size of activated carbons. The selective adsorption using activated carbons with proper pore size distribution would greatly reduce the material cost for the soil washing process by the reuse of the surfactants.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.365-384
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• 2012

Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms that are highly productive in the presence of basic renewable natural sources (light, $CO_2$, water and nutrients). They can synthesize lipids, carbohydrates and proteins in a small number of days. Subsequently, these carbon-captured products can be processed into both biofuels and valuable co-products. Additionally, microalgae would be an ideal feedstock for replacing land-based food crops with cellular products as high energy density transportation fuels. These microscopic organisms could contribute a significant amount of renewable energy on a global scale. In Korea, microalgae biofuel research was common in the early 1990s. The research activities were unfortunately stopped due to limited governmental funds and low petroleum prices. Interest in algal biofuels in Korea has been growing recently due to an increased concern over oil prices, energy security, greenhouse gas emissions, and the potential for other biofuel feedstock to compete for limited agricultural resources. The high productivity of microalgae suggests that much of the Korean transportation fuel requirements can be met by biofuels at a production cost competitive with the increasing cost of petroleum seen in early 2008. At this time, the development of microlalgal biomass production technology remains in its infancy. This study reviewed microalgae culture systems and biomass production, harvesting, oil extraction, conversion, and technoeconomical bottlenecks. Many technical and economic barriers to using microalgal biofuels need to be overcome before mass production of microalgal-derived fuel substitutes is possible. However, serious efforts to overcome these barriers could become a large-scale commercial reality. Overall, this study provides a brief overview of the past few decades of global microalgal research.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.348-353
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• 2009

Organic materials reveal the remarkable absorption and high buffer capacity for nutrient. Hence, organic materials need some different nutrient management skill from inorganic one. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of EC level of nutrient solution on the yield and quality of cut rose grown in the mixed substrate of coir and perlite. 3 EC levels of nutrient solution was treated, which were 0.7, 1.0, 1.3 times of standard solution (Aichiken solution, Japan) for cut rose hydroponics. EC of the standard solution was changed by season following as 1.4 (Apr.~June), 1.0 (July~Aug.), 1.4 (Sep.~Oct.), and $1.6dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ (Nov.~Mar.) subsequently. The supply of nutrient solution was controlled by the signal of water potential at -5kPa using frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) sensor. As the results, marketable yield was similar for all treatments until 3rd harvest, but was decreased in high EC level from 4th harvest to 7th harvest as final. 0.7 times of standard solution decreased the ratio of unmarketable rose having short stem below 70cm and increased the ratio of high quality rose having long stem above 91cm. The flower weight and stem diameter of cut rose was higher in the low EC treatment than the others.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.13-24
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• 2004

This study was carried out to plan the prevention of the generation and discharge of Acid Rock Drainage (ARD). The Acid Base Accounting(ABA) test was performed for geological materials such as pit wall, waste rock and stream sediments near the Imgi abandoned pyrophyllite mine in Busan, Korea. In addition, hydraulic characteristics were tested with the disk tension infiltrometer around the waste rock dump. Maximum Potential Acidity(MPA) of geological materials near the Imgi mine was 246.942kg $H_2SO_4/t$, and maximum Acid Neutralising Capacity(ANC) was 8.7kg $H_2SO_4/t$. These results indicate the pit wall and waste rock, except most of stream sediments are acid generating geological materials. These have salt and free hydrogen ion which resulted from oxidation of sulfides. Hence they could be convert rain water to acid rock drainage. Although the waste rock dump of the Imgi mine have very low infiltration rate, slopes of the waste rock dump have many "V" type erosion gullies and multi-layers. These gullies and multi-layers have coarse clastic particle layers which have very large hydraulic conductivity. Through this coarse clastic particle layer a large part of rain flow into ground. And also this layer could function as aeration path which induced oxidation of sulfide minerals and generation of ARD continuously.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.40-44
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• 2003

Soil-borne infectious disease including Pythium aphanidermatum and Rhizoctonia solani causes severe damage to plants, such as cucumber. This soil-borne infectious disease was not controlled effectively by chemical pesticide. Since these diseases spread through the soil, chemical agents are usually ineffective. Instead, biological control, including antagonistic microbe can be used as a preferred control method. An efficient method was developed to select an antagonistic strain to be used as a biological control agent strain. In this new method, surface tension reduction potential of an isolate was included in the ‘decision factor’ in addition to the other factors, such as growth rate, and pathogen inhibition rate. Considering these 3 decision factors by a statistical method, an isolate from soil was selected and was identified as Bacillus sp. GB16. In the pot test, this strain showed the best performance among the isolated strains. The lowest disease incidence rate and fastest seed growth was observed when Bacillus sp. GB16 was used. Therefore this strain was considered as plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). The action of surface tension reducing component was deduced as the enhancement of wetting, spreading, and residing of antagonistic strain in the rhizosphere. This result showed that new selection method was significantly effective in selecting the best antagonistic strain for biological control of soil-borne infectious plant pathogen. The antifungal substances against P. aphanidermatum and R. solani were partially purified from the culture filtrates of Bacillus sp. GB16. In this study, lipopeptide possessing antifungal activity was isolated from Bacillus sp. GB16 cultures by various purification procedures and was identified as a surfactin-like lipopeptide based on the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), high performance liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy (HPLC-MS), and quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) ESI-MS/MS data. The lipopeptide, named GB16-BS, completely inhibited the growth of Pythium aphanidermatum, Rhizoctonia solani, Penicillium sp., and Botrytis cineria at concentrations of 10 and 50 mg/L, respectively. A novel method to prevent the foaming and to provide oxygen was developed. During the production of surface active agent, such as lipopeptide (surfactin), large amount of foam was produced by aeration. This resulted in the carryover of cells to the outside of the fermentor, which leads to the significant loss of cells. Instead of using cell-toxic antifoaming agents, low amount of hydrogen peroxide was added. Catalase produced by cells converted hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water. Also addition of corn oil as an oxygen vector as well as antifoaming agent was attempted. In addition, Ca-stearate, a metal soap, was added to enhance the antifoam activity of com oil. These methods could prevent the foaming significantly and maintained high dissolved oxygen in spite of lower aeration and agitation. Using these methods, high cell density, could be achieved with increased lipopeptide productivity. In conclusion to produce an effective biological control agent for soil-borne infectious disease, following strategies were attempted i) effective screening of antagonist by including surface tension as an important decision factor ii) identification of antifungal compound produced from the isolated strain iii) novel oxygenation by $H_2O_2-catalase$ with vegetable oil for antifungal lipopeptide production.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 1987

This study was designed to evaluate the characteristics, land use and genesis of well adapted paddy soils. They were mostly classified as the Haplaquepts in the U.S.D.A soil taxonomy and as the Grey soils in the Japanese soil classification system. The proportion of these soils in the total acreage of paddy lands was thirty three percents. The fifty four percents in average of these soils were distributed on the local valley and fans on gentle slopes developed from granite, granite gneiss and shale parent materials. The rests were on the fluvio-marine deposits and alluvial deposits. The soils were characterized with prominant development of gleized horizons and clayey or fine loamy textured category. The available soil depth and the ground water level were relatively deep. The base saturation percent were high with weak acidic pH. The potential productivity of these soils was high.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.469-478
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• 2016

A brain-based evolutionary approach developed by reflecting the brain functions and authentic science is consisted of Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive domains, and within each domain the processes of Diversifying, Evaluating, and Furthering are proceeded (ABC-DEF). Two core components of creativity of originality and usefulness are inherent in each step. So, this study analyzed scientific creativity with the originality and usefulness components in cognitive domain, which is composed of diversifying the meanings inherent in the results of observations or experiments (C-D), evaluating the meanings (C-E), and furthering (C-F) in learning of 'World of Plants' unit which includes two topics of 'Plants on Land' and 'Plants in Water and Special Environment'. A total of 20 fourth grade students at Y elementary school in Gyeonggi province participated in the study. The main results of this study are as follows. First, the scientific creativity in step C-D (Diversifying stage) was assessed according to the scientific creativity assessment formula. The scores of scientific creativity were quite different with topics and showed different pattern in the originality and usefulness components. Second, when the students compare and evaluate the values of each meaning (C-E stage), they weighed more on usefulness than originality, such as "because it is useful" or "because it solve many everyday problems". Third, the overall scores of scientific creativity in step C-F (Furthering stage), as compared with those of step C-D, were low and showed decrease in the average scores of originality from 9.8 to 7.5 points, whereas increase in the average scores of usefulness from 5.4 to 6.1 points. In conclusion, these results showed that, even though the levels were not so high, the students, as scientists, can exhibit the scientific creativity in the processes of diversifying, comparing and evaluating, and applying the meanings about the results obtained by observations or experiments. The specific and various strategies to help students express their potential scientific creativity more effectively need to be developed.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.160-166
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• 1996

Objective of this study was to investigate the effects of all current speed on the microclimates above and inside the plug stand under artificial light. Maximum air temperature appeared near the top of the plug stand. Difference in air temperature inside the plug stand increased with the decreasing air current speed. Difference in relative humidity(DRH) to the relative humidity at the Inlet of the main air flow conditioner Inside and above the plug stand decreased with the increasing air current speed. Relative humidity inside the plug stand was 10-15% higher than that above the plug stand. DRH inside a stand of plug at air current speed of 0.3m s$^{-1}$ was about two times as many as that at air current speed of 0.9 m s$^{-1}$ . DRH inside the plug stand was 2.8-6.5% higher at LAI of 2.6 than that at LAI of 0.5. Gradient for the vapour pressure deficit was distinctly appeared at the low air current speed. Direction of vapour pressure flux is from the medium surface upwards. Difference in vapour pressure(DVPD) to the vapour pressure deficit at the inlet of the main air flow conditioner inside and above the plug stand decreased with the increasing height above the medium surface. DVPD inside the plug stand was 0.3-0.4㎪ higher at air current speed of 0.9m s$^{-1}$ than that at air current speed of 0.3m s$^{-1}$ . Results for the effects of air current speed on the relative humidity and vapour pressure deficit indicated that the microclimates above and inside the plug stand at the rear region in plug trays were slightly unfavorable compared to those at middle region.