• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.223-229
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• 2003

The purpose of this work was to perform the characterization of NAD(P)H-nitroreductase isolated from Stenotrophomonas sp. OK-5 capable of degrading 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). Initially, NADP(H)-nitroreductase by a series of purification processes including ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE-sepharose, andQ-sepharose was prepared. From samples harvested from fraction collector, three different fractions (I, II & III)having the enzyme activity of NAD(P)H-itroreductase were detected. Specific activities of three fractions I, II,and III of NAD(P)H-nitroreductase were determined to approximately 5.06 unit/mg, 4.95 unit/mg and 4.86 unit/mg, and concentrated to 10.5, 9.8, and 8.9-fold compared to crude extract, respectively. Among these three fractions,the fraction I of NAD(P)H-nitroreductase demonstrated the highest specific activity in this experiment. Several factors affecting on the enzyme activity of NAD(P)H-nitroreductase (fractions I, II & III) were investigated.The optimum temperature of all NAD(P)H-nitroreductase (fractions I, II & III) was 30oC, and the optimal pH was approximately 7.5. Metal ions such as Ag+, Cu2+, Hg2+ inhibited approximately 80% enzyme activity of all NAD(P)H-nitroreductase, and the enzyme activities were decreased about 30-40% inhibition in the presence of Mn2+ or Ca2+. However, Fe3+ showed stimulatory effect on the enzyme activity. The molecular weights of NAD(P)H-nitroreductase (fractions I, II & III) were measured about 27 kDa on the SDS-PAGE.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.11-11
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• 2014

Fungal pathogens have huge impact on health and economic wellbeing of human by causing life-threatening mycoses in immune-compromised patients or by destroying crop plants. A key determinant of fungal pathogenesis is their ability to undergo developmental change in response to host or environmental factors. Genetic pathways that regulate such morphological transitions and adaptation are therefore extensively studied during the last few decades. Given that epigenetic as well as genetic components play pivotal roles in development of plants and mammals, contribution of microbial epigenetic counterparts to this morphogenetic process is intriguing yet nearly unappreciated question to date. To bridge this gap in our knowledge, we set out to investigate histone modifications among epigenetic mechanisms that possibly regulate fungal adaptation and processes involved in pathogenesis of a model plant pathogenic fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. M. oryzae is a causal agent of rice blast disease, which destroys 10 to 30% of the rice crop annually. Since the rice is the staple food for more than half of human population, the disease is a major threat to global food security. In addition to the socioeconomic impact of the disease it causes, the fungus is genetically tractable and can undergo well-defined morphological transitions including asexual spore production and appressorium (a specialized infection structure) formation in vitro, making it a model to study fungal development and pathogenicity. For functional and comparative analysis of histone modifications, a web-based database (dbHiMo) was constructed to archive and analyze histone modifying enzymes from eukaryotic species whose genome sequences are available. Histone modifying enzymes were identified applying a search pipeline built upon profile hidden Markov model (HMM) to proteomes. The database incorporates 22,169 histone-modifying enzymes identified from 342 species including 214 fungal, 33 plants, and 77 metazoan species. The dbHiMo provides users with web-based personalized data browsing and analysis tools, supporting comparative and evolutionary genomics. Based on the database entries, functional analysis of genes encoding histone acetyltransferases and histone demethylases is under way. Here I provide examples of such analyses that show how histone acetylation and methylation is implicated in regulating important aspects of fungal pathogenesis. Current analysis of histone modifying enzymes will be followed by ChIP-Seq and RNA-seq experiments to pinpoint the genes that are controlled by particular histone modifications. We anticipate that our work will provide not only the significant advances in our understanding of epigenetic mechanisms operating in microbial eukaryotes but also basis to expand our perspective on regulation of development in fungal pathogens.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.103-115
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• 2009

In vertebrates, the face is mainly formed with neural crest derived neural crest cells by the inherent programs and the interactive environmental factors. Extracellular signaling-regulated kinase (Erk) is one of such programs to regulate the various cellular functions. And retinoic acid (RA) also plays an important role as a regulator in differentiation process at various stages of vertebrate embryogenesis. We wanted to know that the segregation as well as the patterning of maxillary and mandibular structure is greatly influenced by the maxillomandibular cleft (MMC) and the failure of this development may result in the maxillomandibular fusion (syngnathia) or other patterning related disorder. It has been well documented that the epithelium at this cleft region has significant expression of Fibroblast growth factor (Fgf) 8, and it is essential for the patterning of the first arch derived structures. By the morphological, skeletal, cell proliferation and apoptotic, and hybridization analysis, we checked the effects of Erk inhibition and/or RA activation onto MMC and could observe that Erk and RA signaling is individually and synergically involved in the facial patterning in terms of FGF signaling pathway via Barx-l. So RA and Erk signaling work together for the MMC patterning and the segregation of maxilla-mandible by controlling the Fgf-related signaling pathways. And the abnormality in MMC brought by aberrant Fgf signaling may result in the disturbances of maxillary-mandibular segregation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.257-266
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• 2007

The research on red tide is generally in progress through field work, such as the naked eye and sampling. It was difficult to forecast exactly the course, from appearance of red tide to disappearance. with the established ways of investigation and analysis. Accordingly it is need to analyze environmental factors in time and space, the appearance of red tide and the path of its migration by more objective and scientific methods. In this study, GIS is applied to analyse the space character of red tide and the interpolation of IDW(Inverse Distance Weight) is applied to assume the density distribution of red tide after gather data by using Arc/Info. After IDW interpolation, the sea area occurred over 1,000 cells/ml of red tide density is extracted with CON and SUM Function of Grid Module, and the density of the sea area is accumulated daily. As a result of this study, the distribution condition of red tide is found timely and spacially by applying GIS to the sea area of red tide, the results indicated that the spatial density and the cumulative frequency about the origin of red tide using GIS, the sea area demonstrated that the maximum density and the maximum frequency varied significantly over the Nammyun of Namhae-Is. with the maximum frequency being 49 times. accordingly if data about the areas of red tide will occur from the present are accumulated, the shifting route of red tide occurrence and extinction can be predicted.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.147-163
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• 2013

The world faces several issues of energy crisis and environmental deterioration due to over-dependence on single source of which is fossil fuel. Though, fuel is needed as ingredients for industrial development and growth of any country, however the fossil fuel which is a major source of energy for this purpose has always been terrifying thus the need for alternative and renewable energy sources. The search for alternative energy sources resulted into the acceptance of a biofuel as a reliable alternative energy source. This work presents the study of optimization of process of transesterification of vegetable oil to biodiesel using NaOH as catalyst. A $2^4$ factorial design method was employed to investigate the influence of ratio of oil to methanol, temperature, NaOH concentration, and transesterification time on the yield of biodiesel from vegetable oil. Low and high levels of the key factors considered were 4:1 and 6:1 mole ratio, 30 and $60^{\circ}C$ temperatures, 0.5 and 1.0 wt% catalyst concentration, and 30 and 60 min reaction time. Results obtained revealed that oil to methanol molar ratio of 6:1, tranesetrification temperature of $60^{\circ}C$, catalyst concentration of 1.0wt % and reaction time of 30 min are the best operating conditions for the optimum yield of biofuel from vegetable oil, with optimum yield of 95.8%. Results obtained on the characterizzation of the produced biodiesel indicate that the specific gravity, cloud point, flash point, sulphur content, viscosity, diesel index, centane number, acid value, free glycerine, total glycerine and total recovery are 0.8899, 4, 13, 0.0087%, 4.83, 25, 54.6. 0.228mgKOH/g, 0.018, 0.23% and 96% respectively. Results also indicate that the qualities of the biodiesel tested for are in conformity with the set standard. A model equation was developed based on the results obtained using a statistical tool. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of data shows that mole ratio of ground nut oil to methanol and transesterification time have the most pronounced effect on the biodiesel yield with contributions of 55.06% and 9.22% respectively. It can be inferred from the results various conducted that vegetable oil locally produced from groundnut oil can be utilized as a feedstock for biodiesel production.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.556-566
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• 2002

Gunpo city, a medium sized city formed with a basin is populated with a little more than 270,000 peoples and includes the industrial area with about 600 factories. It has been recognized for a long time that peoples living nearby industrial area have complained on serious air contamination due to the geographical and environmental factors. This study was performed on measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and malodor for the air sampled in various places of Gunpo city, and made comparison with VOCs levels in specific area of Seoul. This work would play important role for the efficient management of air contamination of Gunpo city. Samplings were done in the rooftop of eleven village office buildings including Gunpo station in June 12th, 2001. Analytical results indicate that VOCs levels of Gunpo-1-dong, Gunpo station and Kumjungdong regions neighboring industrial area were much higher than the rest of areas, and this fact shows that the origin for air contamination of Gunpo would be industrial area than car exhaustion gases.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.104-118
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• 1995

This study was performed to evaluate factors affecting desorption of organic solvents collected on charcoal tube and to find out the optimum condition. Desorption efficiency for polar analytes was improved when several polar desorption solvents such as methanol, dimethylformamide(DMF), 2-(2-butoxyethoxy)ethanol were added to carbon disulfide($CS_2$). The best improvement was achieved when 10% dimethylformamide(DMF) in $CS_2$ was used as desorption solvent. During storage of polar analytes, recovery was greatly reduced. Especially, the recovery of cyclohexanone was decreased to 18.1 % after a month storage at $34^{\circ}C$. After two weeks storage, recovery of polar analytes was sharply decreased. Water adsorbed on charcoal interfered the recovery of polar analytes but didn't interfere that one of nonpolar solvent, toluene. When 10% DMF in $CS_2$ was used as desorption solvent, the effect of water on recovery was decreased, comparing with Desorption efficiency increased when analyte loading increased, and usage of 10% DMF in $CS_2$ decreased the loading effect. Increasing volume of desorption solvent was not effective to improve desorption efficiency of analytes when 10% DMF was used. Continuous shaking and sonication is not helpful to increase the desorption efficiency of analytes except cyclohexanone using 10% DMF. When silica gel used as adsorbent, methanol was better desorbent than dimethylsulfoxide. Analytes adsorbed on silica gel showed high recovery in low concentration and less affected by humidity. On the basis of this study, the following conclusions have been drawn. To improve the recovery of polar organic materials in air samples, it is necessary to analyze samples as soon as possible after they were collected. Otherwise, samples must be stored at low temperature. Using two components of desorption solvents, such as 10% DMF in $CS_2$, the effects of loading and humidity decreased for polar analytes such as methyl ethyl ketone and methyl isobutyl ketone. When work place has high humidity with low concentration of polar organic solvents, silica gel can be used as adsorbent, because it produces quantitative recovery for polar analytes at this condition. But it should be noted that high humidity makes breakthrough easy in silica gel samples.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.800-808
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• 2005

The compounding resin for biodegradable wrap was developed, and its manufacturing process and physical properties were studied. For these purposes, following factors were optimized: the types and amounts of raw resin material, anti-oxidants, and lubricants used. In this work, the stable compounding resin used to make biodegradable wrap was based on poly(butylene adipate-co-butylenesuccinate) (PBAS) and poly(butyleneadipate-co-butylene succinate-co-butyleneterephthalate) (PBAST). The improved properties of resin with an additive were investigated by melting flow index (MFI). From these results, the physical properties of compounding resin, based on PBAST, were more than those of PBAS. For PBAS, the Irganox 1010, 1076 and Irgafos TNPP as the first and second anti-oxidants, respectively, were good. For PBAST, the good first and second anti-oxidants, respectively, were Irganox 1076 and Mark PEP 36. The good lubricants for feeding PBAS and PBAST were glycerol monostearate and palmityl alcohol, respectively. The stability and tensile strength experiment of wrap were also investigated by the elution of heavy metals and universal testing machine (UTM), respectively. The decomposition ratio of developed wrap was increased proportional to the reclaiming time. The degradation ratio of compounding resin sample was about 60% after 40 days.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.spc
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• pp.74-82
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• 2014

A perennial plant species of Ranunculaceae, Pulsatilla tongkangensis is a very rare species only found in limestone vegetation of South Korea. It is not only rare but also has great value as a horticultural resource, thus resulting in serious problems of overexploitation and habitat disturbance. For the conservation of the rare species and its development as a resource, the study was conducted with the following three aims: first, to investigate any new geographical distribution of the species; second, to identify the site condition and vegetation structure of its habitat; and third, to compare the ecology of P. tongkangensis in other microhabitats such as rock, slope and ridge area. A new distribution was found in limestone vegetation at Danyang-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do. It was, therefore, confirmed that the distribution of P. tongkangensis exactly coincides with the area of distribution of limestone, indicating a possibility that the species might be a calcicole. 87% of the microhabitats found in rocks. Compared to P. tongkangensis, at ridges or slopes, number of P. tongkangensis plants were few in rocks. It is possibly due to the lack of microhabitats that could settle in rocky areas. Once established on rocks, however, plants grew large enough to flower with higher number of leaves and flowers per plant, resulting in higher flowering rate on rocky areas. Cracks in/between rocks are likely to be safe places for the plants with favorable light conditions, abundant fine particles to root down and reduced competition for resources. Yet, further research is necessary in terms of determining whether the species is indeed a calcicole, whether other limiting factors work in its establishment stage, and genetic diversity exists in the population.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.258-270
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• 2016

This study was conducted to test the green-tide mitigation technique in the lower part of the Sook Stream (Chusori) of Daecheong Reservoir from June 27 to August 24, 2014. And the effects were compared with weekly monitoring result of the watching station of the algae alert system (AAS) as well as test beds reach. The green-tide in a test bed was begun from the upstream, and it was gradually transferred and spread toward the downstream by the hydrological factors. The total amount of algae removed by algae removal device during the test period was 33,920 kg, and solids dewatered by natural gravity was 8,480 kg. Also chlorophyll-a content was 2.83 kg, the number of blue-green algae cells was equivalent to $78.6{\times}10^{14}$ cells. Compared with the results of the watching station of AAS, the pre-concentrate removal work in the outbreak waters was able to suggest the possibility of green-tide mitigation. In addition, an effective management of the green-tide was required spatial and temporal occurrence information and practical device technology. Particularly, the optimal timing of algae removal in the river-reservoir hybrid system was recommended at times before the monsoon rainy season and reached the lowest water level.