• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2010

Expensive herbs such as ginseng are always a possible target for fraudulent labeling. New mountain ginseng strains have occasionally been found deep within mountain areas and commercially traded at exorbitant prices. However, until now, no scientific basis has existed to distinguish such ginseng from commonly cultivated ginseng species other than by virtue of being found within deep mountain areas. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of the internal transcribed spacer has been shown to be an appropriate method for the identification of the most popular species (Panax ginseng) in the Panax ginseng genus. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) has been identified between three newly found mountain ginseng (KGD4, KGD5, and KW1) and already established Panax species. Specific PCR primers were designed from this SNP site within the sequence data and used to detect the mountain ginseng strains via multiplex PCR. The established multiplex-PCR method for the simultaneous detection of newly found mountain ginseng strains, Korean ginseng, and foreign ginseng in a single reaction was determined to be effective. This study is the first report of scientific discrimination of "mountain ginsengs" and describes an effective method of identification for fraud prevention and for uncovering the possible presence of other, cheaper ginseng species on the market.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.277.1-277.1
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• 2013

Molecular diagnostics consists of three processes, which are a sample pretreatment, a nucleic acid amplification, and an amplicon detection. Among three components, sample pretreatment is an important process in that it can increase the limit of detection by purifying nucleic acid in biological sample from contaminants that may interfere with the downstream genetic analysis such as nucleic acid amplification and detection. To achieve point-of-care virus detection system, the sample pretreatment process needs to be simple, rapid, and automatic. However, the commercial RNA extraction kits such as Rneasy (Qiagen) or MagnaPure (Roche) kit are highly labor-intensive and time-consuming due to numerous manual steps, and so it is not adequate for the on-site sample preparation. Herein, we have developed a rotary microfluidic system to extract and purify the RNA without necessity of external mechanical syringe pumps to allow flow control using microfluidic technology. We designed three reservoirs for sample, washing buffer, and elution buffer which were connected with different dimensional microfluidic channels. By controlling RPM, we could dispense a RNA sample solution, a washing buffer, and an elution buffer successively, so that the RNA was captured in the sol-gel solid phase, purified, and eluted in the downstream. Such a novel rotary sample preparation system eliminates some complicated hardwares and human intervention providing the opportunity to construct a fully integrated genetic analysis microsystem.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1B
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• pp.99-106
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• 2006

Due to both global warming and constructions of seadike/seawalls, continuously or abruptly rising tendencies of extreme high water levels have been detected at Kunsan and Mokpo harbors. This paper deals firstly with the separation of each effect, namely global warming effect and construction effect, on increases of water level quantitatively by a linear regression method. And then, it can be explained why and how the extreme high water levels had been risen just after constructions at both harbors. A numerical simulation of $M_2$ tidal constituent at Mokpo coastal zone shows that the tidal amplification by constructions is mainly due to the extinguishment of TCE at Mokpogu. The tidal flat effect makes the amplification more deepen at spring tide or extreme high tide, which results in the increase of inundation risk at Mokpo harbor. A frequency analysis method is applied, which is shown to be effective at such a site of having non-homogeneous tidal data due to constructions as Mokpo harbor.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2017.04a
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• pp.122-122
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• 2017

Recently, environmental problems have become an area of growing interests. In-situ monitoring of water quality is fundamental to most environmental applications. The accurate measurement of nitrate concentrations is fundamental to understanding biogeochemistry in aquatic ecosystems. Several studies have reported that one of the most feasible methods to measure nitrate concentration is the use of Ion Selective-electrodes (ISEs). The ISE application to water monitoring has several advantages, such as direct measurement methodology, high sensitivity, wide measurement range, low cost, and portability. However, the ISE methods may yield inconsistent results where there was a difference in temperature between the calibration and measurement solutions, which is associated with the temperature dependence of ionic activity coefficients in solution. In this study, to investigate the potential of using the combination of a temperature sensor and nitrate ISEs for minimizing the effect of temperature on real-time nitrate sensing in natural water, a prototype of on-site water monitoring system was built, mainly consisting of a sensor chamber, an array of 3 ISEs, an waterproof temperature sensor, an automatic sampling system, and an arduino MCU board. The analog signals of ISEs were obtained using the second-order Sallen-key filter for performing voltage following, differential amplification, and low pass filtering. The performance test of the developed water nitrate sensing system was conducted in a monitoring station of drinking water located in Jeongseon, Kangwon. A temperature compensation method based on two-point normalization was proposed, which incorporated the determination of temperature coefficient values using regression equations relating solution temperature and electrode signal determined in our previous studies.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.203-210
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• 2013

To look into site characteristics of the Hwacheon borehole seismic station, we analyzed property of earthquake and microtremor recorded on surface and borehole seismometers. Acoording to analysis result of microtremor, the surface-to-borehole energy ratio was approximately 15 times greater during the daytime than during the nighttime, and the surface-to-borehole ratios of spectral amplitudes as frequency increases. For earthquake data, amplitude spectra and dominant frequency were computed using surface and borehole data. As a result, small earthquakes with short distance recorded on surface seismometer peaked at 8 Hz, 46 Hz. This result corresponds to resonance frequencies (7.4 Hz, 46 Hz) calculated by H/V spectral ratio. We confirmed amplification effect by site characteristics of overburden. Background noise level was approximately 20,000 times smaller at borehole seismic station than surface seismic station. These results provide strong evidence for the superior recording of earthquakes using borehole seismometers instead of surface seismometers.

• BMB Reports
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.273-282
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• 2002

Sp3 is a bifunctional transcription factor that has been reported to stimulate or repress the transcription of numerous genes. Although the size of Sp3 mRNA is 4.0kb, the size of the known Sp3 cDNA sequence is 3.6kb. Thus, Sp3 functional studies have been performed with an artificially introduced start codon, and thus an amino-terminus that differs from the wild-type. Ideally, full-length cDNA expression vectors with the appropriate start codon should be utilized for these studies. Using 5'rapid amplification of cDNA ends, a full-length Sp3 cDNA clone was generated and the sequence verified in nine cell lines. No AUG initiation codon was present. However, stop codons were present in all three frames 5' to the known coding sequence. In vitro translation of this full-length cDNA clone produced the expected three isoforms-one at 100 kDa and two in the mid 60 kDa range. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that the protein products had the ability to bind to the Sp1/3 consensus sequence. In vitro studies, using our Sp3 clone and site directed mutagenesis, identified the translation initiation site for the larger isoform as AUA. AUA has not been previously described as an endogenous initiation codon in eukaryotes.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.45-58
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• 2017

As many seismic codes for various facilities are changed into a performance based design code, demand for a reliable nonlinear response-history analysis (RHA) arises. However, the equivalent linear analysis has been used as a standard approach since 1970 in the field of site response analysis. So, the reliability of nonlinear RHA should be provided to be adopted in replace of equivalent linear analysis. In this paper, the reliability of nonlinear RHA is reviewed for a layered soil layer using Loma Prieta earthquake records in 1989. For this purpose, the appropriate way for selecting nonlinear soil models and the effect of base boundary condition for 3D analysis are evaluated. As a result, there is no significant differences between equivalent linear and nonlinear RHA. In case of 3D analysis, absorbing boundary condition should be applied at base to prevent rocking motion of the whole model.

• Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.45-56
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• 2019

In this study, the seismic risk has been evaluated by setting the bedrock acceleration to 0.154g which, was taking into consideration that the earthquake return period for the buried electric power tunnels in the metropolitan area to be 1,000 years. In this case, the risk assessment during the earthquake was carried out in three stages. In the first stage, the site classification was performed based on the site investigation data of the target area. Then, the LPI(Liquefaction Potential Index) was applied using the site amplification factor. After, candidates were selected using a hazard map. In the second stage, risk assessment analysis of seismic response are evaluated thoroughly after the recalculation of the LPI based on the site characteristics from the boring logs around the electric power area that are highly probable to be liquefied in the first stage. The third Stage visited the electric power tunnels that are highly probable of liquefaction in the second stage to compensate for the limitations based on the borehole data. At this time, the risk of liquefaction was finally evaluated based off of the reinforcement method used at the time of construction, the application of seismic design, and the condition of the site.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.191-202
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• 2007

To identify the detailed attenuation structure in the southern Korean Peninsula, a numerical test was conducted for the Q tomography inversion to be applied to the accumulated dataset until 2005. In particular, the stochastic pointsource ground-motion model (STGM model; Boore, 2003) was adopted for the 2D Q tomography inversion for direct application to simulating the strong ground-motion. Simultaneous inversion of the STGM model parameters with a regional single Q model was performed to evaluate the source and site effects which were necessary to generate an artificial dataset for the numerical test. The artificial dataset consists of simulated Fourier spectra that resemble the real data in the magnitude-distance-frequency-error distribution except replacement of the regional single Q model with a checkerboard type of high and low values of laterally varying Q models. The total number of Q blocks used for the checkerboard test was 75 (grid size of $35{\times}44km^2$ for Q blocks); Q functional form of $Q_0f^{\eta}$ ($Q_0$=100 or 500, 0.0 < ${\eta}$ < 1.0) was assigned to each Q block for the checkerboard test. The checkerboard test has been implemented in three steps. At the first step, the initial values of Q-values for 75 blocks were estimated. At the second step, the site amplification function was estimated by using the initial guess of A(f) which is the mean site amplification functions (Yun and Suh, 2007) for the site class. The last step is to invert the tomographic Q-values of 75 blocks based on the results of the first and second steps. As a result of the checkerboard test, it was demonstrated that Q-values could be robustly estimated by using the 2D Q tomography inversion method even in the presence of perturbed source and site effects from the true input model.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.115-120
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• 2014

Site coefficient and amplification factor of current domestic Seismic Design Code (KBC-2009) have no consideration for the domestic ground condition in which the base rock is normally placed within 30m form the surface. Accordingly, in this study dynamic centrifugal test and analysis for pile foundation into clay were achieved. and the response spectrums of free surface and basement were compared with each other. Within the period 1sec., the measured spectral acceleration of free surface and basement was bigger than the design spectral acceleration of SC and SD site. However the measured spectral acceleration of free surface and basement for the period over 1.5sec. was smaller than the design spectral acceleration of SC site. There was no severe difference of spectral acceleration according to the upper structure, embedded depth of foundation and free surface conditions. Consequently, normal domestic apartment housing for the period range over 1.5sec. could be design more economically applying these test result.