• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1294-1303
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• 2019

Perchlorate is an anionic pollutant that is very soluble and stable in water. It has been detected not only in soil/ground water but also in surface water, drinking water, food, fish, and crops. Perchlorate inhibits iodine uptake by the thyroid gland and reduces production of thyroid hormones that are primarily responsible for regulation of metabolism. Although various technologies have been developed to remove perchlorate from the environment, biodegradation is the method of choice since it is economical and environmentally friendly. However there is limited information on perchlorate biodegradation in salt environment such as salt water. Therefore this paper reviews biodegradation of perchlorate in salt water and related microorganisms. Most biodegradation research has employed heterotrophic perchlorate removal using organic compounds such as acetate as electron donors. Biodegradation research has focused on perchlorate removal from spent brine generated by ion exchange technology that is primarily employed to clean up perchlorate-contaminated ground water. Continuous removal of perchlorate at up to 10% NaCl was shown when bioreactors were inoculated with enriched salt-tolerant perchlorate-reducing bacteria. However the reactors did not show long-term stable removal of perchlorate. Microorganisms belonging to ${\beta}$- and ${\gamma}$-Proteobacteria were dominant in bioreactors used to remove perchlorate from salt water. This review will help our understanding of perchlorate removal from salt water to develop a decent biotechnology for the process.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.289-298
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• 2018

The Biosafety Division of the National Academy of Agricultural Science has developed a 'Crop Composition DB' that provides analytical data on commercialized crops. It can be used as a reference in the 'Comparative Evaluation by Compositional Analysis' for the safety assessment of genetically modified (GM) crops. This database provides the composition of crops cultivated in Korea, and thus upgrades the data to check the extent of changes in the compositional content depending on the cultivated area, varieties and year. The database is a compilation of data on the antioxidant, nutrient and secondary metabolite compositions of rice and capsicum grown in two or more cultivation areas for a period of more than two years. Data analysis was conducted under the guidelines of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists or methods previously reported on papers. The data was provided as average, minimum and maximum values to assess whether the statistical differences between the GM crops and comparative non-GM crops fall within the biological differences or tolerances of the existing commercial crops. The Crop Composition DB is an open-access source and is easy to access based on the query selected by the user. Moreover, functional ingredients of colored crops, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes and cauliflowers, were provided so that food information can be used and utilized by general consumers. This paper introduces the feature and usage of 'Crop Composition DB', which is a valuable tool for characterizing the composition of conventional crops.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.434-440
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• 2019

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from kimchi were studied for their ${\beta}$-glucuronidase activity. Among the 156 strains tested, 52 strains utilized glucuronic acid as a carbon source and their intracellular ${\beta}$-glucuronidase activities were significantly higher than their extracellular activities. Leuconostoc mesenteroides KFRI 73007 isolated from turnip kimchi exhibited the highest intracellular ${\beta}$-glucuronidase activity of $0.77{\pm}0.01U/mg$ protein, which was further increased to $1.14{\pm}0.01U/mg$ protein under optimized reaction conditions (pH 7, $37^{\circ}C$). The activity of ${\beta}$-glucuronidase was notably decreased by the addition of divalent cations, and glucuronic acid was the best carbon source to produce ${\beta}$-glucuronidase in Leu. mesenteroides KFRI 73007.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.72-77
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• 2021

Silkworms have traditionally been used to produce silk and textiles. However, steamed and freeze-dried mature silkworm larval powder (SMSP) contain large amounts of amino acids, vitamins, and essential minerals. In this study, we investigated the potential of SMSP as a hangover-relieving agent. Thirty individuals who met the selection criteria and exclusion criteria were included in the study and subsequently underwent a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-design human application test. Importantly, the test product containing SMSP (CKDHC) was proven to alleviate hangovers through a significant reduction in the plasma concentration of acetaldehyde in the context of an alcohol-induced hangover model. In particular, from 0.5 h after SMSP intake, the blood acetaldehyde concentration (mg/L), area under the time curve (AUC; indicating the degree of bioabsorption of blood acetaldehyde), and the highest blood acetaldehyde concentration (Cmax) were reduced. Altogether, these results suggest that the test product (CKDHC) exhibits an accelerated hangover-relieving effect.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.55-60
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• 2021

Antibiotics are compounds broadly used to treat patients with infectious diseases and to enhance productivity in agriculture, fisheries, and livestock industries. However, due to the overuse of antibiotics and their low biodegradability, a substantial amount of antibiotics is leaking into the sewer, subsequently resulting in pollution and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This study explores biodegradable serum albumin's potential as an adsorbent to remove antibiotics from water. Serum albumin is a natural blood protein that transports various metabolites and hormones to all tissues' extravascular spaces. While serum albumin is highly water-soluble, it has intrinsic binding sites which readily accommodate ionic, hydrophilic, or hydrophobic molecules, rendering it a good building block for a nano-adsorbent. To induce coacervation, a desolvating agent, ethanol, was added dropwise into the aqueous albumin solution, resulting in dehydration and liquid-liquid phase separation of albumins into albumin nanoparticles within a size range of 150 ~ 170 nm. The addition of glutaraldehyde as a cross-linker improved the size stability and homogeneity of albumin nanoparticles. Adsorption of amoxicillin antibiotics on albumin nanoparticles was dependent upon glutaraldehyde concentration used in desolvation and pH during adsorption. The maximum adsorption capacity measured by spectrophotometry was found to be 12.4 micrograms of amoxicillin per milligram of albumin nanoparticle. These results demonstrate serum albumin's potential as a building block for fabricating a natural nano-adsorbent to remove antibiotics from water.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.414-421
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• 2022

In this study, we isolated Weizmannia ginsengihumi LGHNH (KCTC 14462BP) from 30-year-old wild Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer and elucidated the characteristics of the isolated bacterium and its industrial potential as an anti-aging material. W. ginsengihumi LGHNH was investigated to produce indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), a plant growth-promoting hormone (1.38 ㎍/ml to 2.22 ㎍/ml). We also confirmed the existence of bioconversion activity via the comparison of the ginsenoside content before and after fermentation. As for the converted minor ginsenoside, Rg2(R), Rg4, Rg6, Rg3(S), Rg3(R), Rk1, Rg5, Rh1(R), Rk3 and Rh4 are known to have high bioavailability and various skin effects. We measured mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP biosynthesis to elucidate W. ginsengihumi LGHNH cultured product (WCP) as an anti-aging material. As a result, the mitochondrial membrane potential in HaCaT cells with UVB decreased to 39.3% compared to the unirradiated group, but was recovered to 57.3% and 58.1% by 0.001% (v/v) and 0.01% (v/v) WCP, respectively. In addition, we measured mitochondrial ATP biosynthesis. It decreased to 94.3% compared to the unirradiated group with UVB, but was recovered to 105.3% and 105.7% by 0.001% (v/v) and 0.01% (v/v) WCP.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.593-604
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• 2023

The ocean accounts for over 70% of the Earth's surface and is a space of largely unexplored unknowns and opportunities. Korea is a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides, emphasizing the importance of marine research. The ocean has an extremely complex environment with immense biological diversity. In terms of microbiology, the marine environment has varying factors like extreme temperature, pressure, solar radiation, salt concentration, and pH, providing ecologically unique habitats. Due to this variety, marine organisms have very different phylogenetic classifications compared with terrestrial organisms. Although various microorganisms inhabit the ocean, studies on the diversity, isolation, and cultivation of marine microorganisms and the secondary metabolites they produce are still insufficient. Research on bioactive substances from marine microorganisms, which were rarely studied until the 1990s, has accelerated in terms of natural products from marine Actinomycetes since the 2000s. Since then, industries for bioplastic and biofuel production, carbon dioxide capture, probiotics, and pharmaceutical discovery and development of antibacterial, anticancer, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory drugs using bacteria, archaea, and algae have significantly grown. In this review, we introduce current research findings and the latest trends in life science and biotechnology using marine microorganisms. Through this article, we hope to create consumer awareness of the importance of basic and applied research in various natural product-related discovery fields other than conventional pharmaceutical drug discovery. The article aims to suggest pathways that may boost research on the optimization and application of future marine-derived materials.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.43 no.6 s.312
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• pp.28-35
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• 2006

Statistical models of shape variability based on active shape models (ASMs) have been successfully utilized to perform segmentation and recognition tasks in two-dimensional (2D) images. Three-dimensional (3D) model-based approaches are more promising than 2D approaches since they can bring in more realistic shape constraints for recognizing and delineating the object boundary. For 3D model-based approaches, however, building the 3D shape model from a training set of segmented instances of an object is a major challenge and currently it remains an open problem in building the 3D shape model, one essential step is to generate a point distribution model (PDM). Corresponding landmarks must be selected in all1 training shapes for generating PDM, and manual determination of landmark correspondences is very time-consuming, tedious, and error-prone. In this paper, we propose a novel automatic method for generating 3D statistical shape models. Given a set of training 3D shapes, we generate a 3D model by 1) building the mean shape fro]n the distance transform of the training shapes, 2) utilizing a tetrahedron method for automatically selecting landmarks on the mean shape, and 3) subsequently propagating these landmarks to each training shape via a distance labeling method. In this paper, we investigate the accuracy and compactness of the 3D model for the human liver built from 50 segmented individual CT data sets. The proposed method is very general without such assumptions and can be applied to other data sets.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.289-293
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• 2002

This study was conducted to investigate changes of pH, meat color, cooking loss, shear force and sensory evaluation on Hanwoo meat fed with supplemental fig fermentation(SFF) during storage period. A total of 10 Hanwoo bulls were subjected to one of two treatment diets (control and 10% SFF) from live weight of 400kg far 6 months. After slaughter, longissimus muscles were removed, zipper-wrapped and stored at 4$\^{C}$ for 21 days. The pH, meat color, cooking loss, shear force and sensory evaluation of the samples were measured at 1, 3, 9, 15, 21 days of storage. There were no differences in pH, meat objective color(Hunter L, a and b) and cooking loss (%) of longissimus muscles between control and SFF treatment during storage. Shear force values of longissimus muscle from SFF treatment showed lower level in 1, 3 and 9 days and tended to decrease during storage. No differences in odor and appearance of sensory evaluation were observed between control and SFF treatment during storage. The taste induced by SFF was increased(f<0.05) at 1, 3 and 9 days of storage. These results indicate that the SFF may improve meat quality of Hanwoo during storage.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.278-301
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• 2018

Although more than 80% of living organisms are found in marine ecosystems, only less than 10% of marine resources have been utilized for human food consumptions and other usages. It is well known that marine resources (fish, shellfish and algae) have exceptional nutritional properties; however, their functional characteristic has not been completely discovered. It is believed that metabolites (organic compounds, proteins, peptides, lipids, minerals, etc.) play an important role to show its biological properties. Marine proteins and peptides are considered to be future drugs due to their excellent biological activities with a fewer adverse side effect. Marine peptides show several biological activities, including antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-tumor, anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive, anti-coagulant, immunomodulatory, appetite suppressing and neuroprotective effects. Therefore, the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and cosmeceutical companies have been paid attention to the marine peptides to commercialize into products. This current review mainly focused on the above mentioned biological activities of marine peptides and protein hydrolysates as a functional food and pharmaceutical applications. To commercialize these materials in industrial level required large quantity in high-purity level, and it is complicated to produce huge quantity from the marine resources due to insufficient raw materials, unavailability of raw materials through a year, hinder the growth with geographical variations, and availability of compounds in extreme small quantities. The best solution for these issues is to introduce new modern technologies such as artificial intelligence robots, drones, submersibles and automated raw material harvesting vessels in farming industries instead of man power, which will lead to 4th industrial revolution.