• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.172-186
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• 2022

Benthic macroinvertebrates are important ecological and environmental indicators as primary or secondary consumers, and therefore are widely used in the evaluation of aquatic environments. However, there are no comprehensive river ecosystem monitoring surveys that link the major physicochemical water quality items with benthic macroinvertebrates in urban streams. Therefore, this study investigated the distribution characteristics of benthic macroinvertebrates and physicochemical water quality items (17 items) in Yangjaecheon and Yeouicheon from 2019 to 2020. At the same time, by applying Spearman's rank correlation analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) analysis in the water quality data and biotic index, we tried to provide basic data for diagnosing the current status of river ecosystems in major urban rivers in Seoul. Based on the study results, a total of 39 species and 3,787 individuals were identified in Yangjaecheon, the water quality(based on BOD, TOC, and TP) of Yangjaecheon was higher than Grade Ib(good), and the BMI using benthic macroinvertebrates appeared as Grade C(normal) at all the sites. In Yeouicheon, a total of 51 species and 4,199 individuals were identified, the water quality(based on BOD, TOC, TP) was higher than Grade Ib(good) similar to Yangjaecheon, and the BMI of both Upstream and Saewon bridge was Grade B(good), while Yeoui bridge was Grade C(normal). Overall, analysis results for the distribution of benthic macroinvertebrates by a nonmetric multidimensional scaling method showed no significant difference between the two streams (p=0.1491). Also, significant environmental variables related to benthic macroinvertebrates distribution were determined as water temperature and DO. On the other hand, the results of the correlation analysis between biotic index and major water quality items confirmed that R1 and BMI could be used for on-site urban river water quality evaluation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1291-1300
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• 2014

Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) are a ubiquitous family of antioxidant enzymes that participate in a variety of biological processes, including $H_2O_2$-mediated signal transduction, molecular chaperoning, and mitochondrial function. In this study, we isolated and characterized a Prx 2 cDNA from abalone (Haliotis discus hannai). The abalone Prx 2 cDNA encoded a 199-amino acid polypeptide that belongs to a class of typical 2-Cys Prxs that contain peroxidatic and resolving cysteines. The deduced abalone Prx 2 protein showed strong homology (64-99%) with Prx 2 proteins from other species, including mollusk, fish, amphibians, and mammals, and it was most closely related to disk abalone (H. discus discus) Prx 2. Abalone Prx 2 mRNA was ubiquitously detected in tested tissues, and its expression was comparatively high in the mantle, gills, liver, foot, and digestive duct. The expression level of abalone Prx 2 mRNA was 106.7-fold, 51.9-fold, and 437.8-fold higher, respectively, in the gills, digestive duct, and liver than in the muscles. The expression level of abalone Prx 2 mRNA in the liver peaked at 6 hr postinfection with Vibrio parahemolyticus and decreased at 12 hr postinfection. The expression level of abalone Prx 2 mRNA in hemocytes was drastically increased at 1 hr postinfection with V. parahemolyticus. These results suggest that abalone Prx 2 is conserved through evolution and that it may play a role similar to that of its mammalian counterpart.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.259-268
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• 2010

Data on squid catches by the Korean jig fishery in sea blocks ($30'{\times}30'$), water temperatures at depth(30m, 50m and 100m) and zooplankton biomass in the East Sea from 1980 to 1999 were analyzed to examine the mechanism of formation of the high density stock area. Japanese common squid (Todarodes pacificus) catch in the East Sea was low in 1980s, while the catch was high in 1990s. The five sea blocks (No. 76, 82, 83, 87, 88) of the southern part in the eastern coastal waters of Korea showed high levels of percentage of total catch (35.1%), whereas the four sea blocks (No. 65, 71, 72, 78) of the coastal waters of Uleung Island showed high levels of percentage of CPUE (61.2%) for 20 years. Squid catches showed monthly fluctuations according to the vertical distribution of optimum water temperature for fishing ($14^{\circ}C{\sim}19^{\circ}C$). High total catch and high CPUE area matched well with $10^{\circ}C$ isothermal lines at 100m depth indicating northern limiting of Tsushima Warm Current, and temporal and spatial change in $10^{\circ}C$ isothermal line caused the change in total catch and CPUE. Horizontal distribution of zooplankton biomass by sea block was not matched well with those of total catch and CPUE, however pattern of time-series change in total zooplankton biomass was similar to that in total squid catch.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1035-1042
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• 2005

Granular Activated Carbon(GAC) is widely used in drinking water treatment. At S and B Water Treatment Plant, GAC is used in place of granular media in conventional rapid filters(GAC Filter-Adsorber) for removal of Disinfection By-products(DBPs). The primary focus of this study is on the performance of existing filter-adsorber, and their operation. It was found that F/A process removed turbidity as effective as sand system. The ratio of Hydrophobic DOM (HPO) and hydrophilic DOM (HPI) fraction in the raw water at S and B WTP was similar. Filter Adsorber presented earlier DOC breakthrough and steady state condition which was contributed by biodegradation during operation period. The removal efficiency of DBPs were used to evaluate the filter performance. The DBPs concentration of F/A treated water was below treatment goal level (THM < $80\;{\mu}g/L$, HAA < $60{\mu}g/L$). The removal efficiency of THM decreased rapidly during operation period. However, HAA were removed steadily regardless of the influent concentration of HAA. These results indicate that the removal of THM depend upon the adsorption mechanism while the removal of HAA depend upon biodegradation as well as adsorption. The decrease of adsorption capacity and characteristic value of GAC may be attributed to the effect of high organic loading, residual free chlorine, coagulants, manganese oxidants and frequently backwashing. This study has confirmed that Filter adsorber process can be considered as effective alternatives for the removal of DBPs, especially HAA.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.988-1000
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• 2023

Hesperetin(HT) is a potent antioxidant flavonoid aglycone derived from hesperidin(HD). The antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial activities of HT and its cyclodextrin(CD) inclusion complexes were compared in vitro. HT was prepared by enzymatic hydrolysis of HD, and HT/CD complexes were prepared using 𝛽-cyclodextrin(𝛽-CD) and hydroxypropyl-𝛽-cyclodextrin(HP-𝛽-CD) by solvent co-evaporation method. The solubility of the HT/HP-𝛽-CD inclusion complex increased 93.5-fold compared to HT, and the solubility of HT/𝛽-CD increased 22.5-fold. The HT/HP-𝛽-CD inclusion complex showed a similar effect as HT on radical scavenging activity in antioxidant assays, whereas the HT/𝛽-CD inclusion complex showed slightly lower activity than HT. Cytotoxicity was low in the following order; HT/HP-𝛽-CD, HT/𝛽-CD, and HT in murine macrophage RAW264.7 cells. Treatment with HT and HT/CD inclusion complexes reduced the levels of inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide(NO), tumor necrosis factor-𝛼(TNF-𝛼) and interleukin-6(IL-6) in the cells. HT and HT/HP-𝛽-CD inclusion complex were more effective than HT/𝛽-CD inclusion complex at relatively low concentrations. Inhibitory effects were tested on skin-pathogenic bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and they showed an antimicrobial effect on S. aureus in the order of HT = HT/HP-𝛽-CD > HT/𝛽-CD, but they did not show any significant inhibitory effect on P. aeruginosa. In conclusion, HT, the aglycone form of HD, and its CD inclusion complexes showed various biological activities. HT/HP-𝛽-CD inclusion complex, which is the highly soluble form of HT, showed relatively higher activity compared to HT/𝛽-CD inclusion complex.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2008

Specific protocols to increase the differentiation of neuronal cells from embryonic stem (ES) cells have been well established, such as retinoic acid induction and lineage selection of neuronal cells. For the neuropathological studies, ES-derived neurons (ES neurons) must show normal physiological characteristics related to cell death and survival and should be maintained in vitro for a sufficient time to show insults-specific cell death without spontaneous death. When mouse ES cells were plated onto astrocytes monolayer after retinoic acid induction, most ES cells differentiated into neuronal cells, which were confirmed by the presence of specific neuronal markers, and the cultures were viable for at least four weeks. When these cultures were examined for vulnerability to glutamate excitotoxicity, ES neurons were vulnerable to excitotoxic insults mediated by agonist-specific receptors. The vulnerability to excitotoxic death increased with developmental age of ES neurons in vitro. Specific receptors for Neurotrophin and GDNF family ligands were present in ES neurons. GDNF and NT-3 could modulate the survival and excitotoxic vulnerability of ES neurons. The vulnerability and resistance to toxic insults, which are essential requirements of model culture systems for neuropathological studies, make ES neurons to a useful model culture system. Especially ES cell are highly amenable to genetic modification unlikely to primary neuronal cells, which will give us a chance to answer more complicated neurophysiological questions. Recently there was an outstanding attempt to explore the cellular toxicity using human ES cells (Schrattenholz & Klemm, 2007) and it suggested that ES cells could be a new model system for neurophysiological studies soon and go further a large-scale screening system for pharmacological compounds in the future.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.221-228
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• 2012

Physicochemical properties of liquid fertilizer samples of resource organization, which are domestically produced and distributed, are analyzed. Major contents of the research results are as follows. 1. The ratio of complete decomposition for liquid fertilizer is 49% at Public Resource Center and 33% at Liquid Fertilizer Supply Center. The combined ratio of both half-decomposed and un-decomposed liquid fertilizers is over 50% at both centers. 2. The ratio of complete decomposed liquid fertilizer, 67%, is the highest in Gangwon and Gyeonggi-do area. The ratio of un-decomposed liquid fertilizer is high in Chungbuk and Chungnam area. The sum of ratios of the half- and un-decomposed is over 60% in the areas except Gyeonnggi-do and Gangwon-do. 3. As a result of regional comparison of the physicochemical properties of liquid fertilizers, concentration variation in most of the items are large, and the degree of uniformity is found to be considerably low. In particular, concentration variation in T-N and $NH_4$-N is the most noticeable. 4. The items that physicochemically correlated to the degree of decomposition of liquid fertilizer are appeared to be T-N, $NH_4$-N, $NO_3$-N, EC, $SCOD_{Mn}$, and ORP. 5. The physicochemical average values of the liquid fertilizer estimated as "complete decomposed" are appeared to be T-N 829 mg/L,$NH_4$-N 517 mg/L, $NO_3$-N 151 mg/L, $SCOD_{Mn}$ 1,205 mg/L, EC 10.32 mS/cm, ORP -117.12 mV.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.53-65
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• 2014

In order to estimate the effect of nutrients addition for phytoplankton growth and community compositons in spring and summer season, we investigated the abiotic and biotic factors of surface and bottom waters at 20 stations of inner and offshore areas in Gwangyang Bay, Korea. Nutrient additional experiments were also conducted to identify any additional nutrient effects on phytoplankton assemblage using the surface water for the assay. Bacillariophyceae occupied more than 90% of total phytoplankton assembleges. Of these, diatom Eucampia zodiacus and Skeletonema costatum-like species was mainly dominated in spring and summer, respectively. Here, we can offer the season why the two diatom population densities were maintained at high levels in both seasons. First, light transparency of spring season in the euphotic zone was greatly improved in the bay. This improvement is one of important factor as tigger of increase in E. zodiacus population. Second, low salinity and high nutrient sources supplied by Seomjin River discharge are a main cue for strong bottom-up effects on S. costatum-like species during the summer rainy season. Based on the algal bio-assays, although maximum growth rate of phytoplankton communities at inner bay (St.8) were similar to those of outer bay (St.20), half-saturation constant ($K_s$) for phosphate at outer bay was slightly lower than those of inner bay. This implied that adapted cells in low nutrient condition of outer bay may have enough grown even the low phosphate and they also have a competitive advantage against other algal species under low nutrient condition. In particular, efficiency of N (+) addition in summer season was higher compared to control and P added experiments. In the bay, silicon was not a major limiting factor for phytoplankton growth, whereas nitrogen (N) was considered as a limiting factor during spring and summer. Therefore, a sufficient silicate supply form water mixing Si recycled from diatom decomposition and river water is favorable form maintaining diatom ecosystems in Gwangyang Bay.

• Korean Journal of Breeding Science
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.180-189
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• 2017

Genetically modified (GM) crops have been developed worldwide through the recombinant DNA technology and commercialized by global agricultural companies. Until now, GM crops have not been cultivated commercially in Korea. Commercialization of GM crops requires a compulsory assessment of environmental risk associated with the release of GM crops. This study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of pollen mediated gene flow from Bt transgenic rice (Agb0101) to japonica non-GM rice (Nakdongbyeo), indica non-GM rice (IR36), and weedy rice (R55). A total of 729,917, 596,318 and 230,635 seeds were collected from Nakdongbyeo, IR36, and R55, respectively, which were planted around Agb0101. Selection of the hybrids was determined by repeated spraying of herbicide and Cry1Ac1 immunostrip assay. Finally, the hybrids were confirmed by PCR analysis using specific primer. The hybrids were found in all non-GM rice and out-crossing ranged from 0.0005% at IR36 to 0.0027% at Nakdongbyeo. All of hybrids were located within 1.2 m distance from the Agb0101 rice plot. The meteorological elements including rainfall and temperature during rice flowering time were found to be important factors to determine rice out-crossing rate. Consideration should be taken for many factors like the meteorological elements of field and physiological condition of crop to set up the safety management guideline to prevention of GM crops gene flow.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.14-30
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to evaluate trophic conditions of various Korean reservoirs using Trophic State Index (TSI) and predict the reservoir conditions by empirical models. The water quality dataset (2000, 2001) used here were obtained from the Ministry of Environment, Korea. The water quality, based on multi-parameters of dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), suspended solid (SS), Secchi depth (SD), chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ (CHL), and conductivity largely varied depending on the sampling watersheds and seasons. In general, trophic conditions declined along the longitudinal axis of headwater-to-the dam and the largest seasonal variations occurred during the summer monsoon of July-August. Major inputs of TP occurred during the monsoon (r=0.656, p=0.002) and this pattern was similar to solid dynamics of SS (r=0.678, p<0.001). Trophic parameters including CHL, TP, SD, and TN were employed to evaluate how the water systems varies with season. Trophic State Index (TSI, Carlson, 1977), based on TSI (CHL), TSI (TP), and TSI (SD), ranged from mesotrophic to eutrophic. However, the trophic state, based on TSI (TN), indicated eutrophic-hypereutrophic conditions in the entire reservoirs, regardless of the seasons, indicating a N-rich system. Overall, nutrient data showed that phosphorus was a primary factor regulating the trophic state. The relationships between CHL (eutrophication index) vs. trophic parameters (TN, TP, and SD) were analysed to develop empirical models which can predict the trophic status. Regression analyses of log-transformed seasonal CHL against TP showed that the value of $R^2$ was 0.31 (p=0.017) in the premonsoon but was 0.69 (p<0.001) during the postmonsoon, indicating a greater algal response to the phosphorus during the postmonsoon. In contrast, SD had reverse relation with TP, CHL during all season. TN had weak relations with CHL during all seasons. Overall, data suggest that TP seems to be a good predictor for algal biomass, estimated by CHL, as shown in the empirical models.