• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1173-1178
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to isolate an agar-degrading marine bacterium and characterize its agarase. Bacterium BK-1, from Gwanganri Beach at Busan, Korea, was isolated on Marine 2216 agar medium and identified as Agarivorans sp. BK-1 by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The extracellular agarase, characterized after dialysis of culture broth, showed maximum activity at pH 6.0 and $50^{\circ}C$ in 20 mM Tris-HCl buffer. Relative activities at 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and $70^{\circ}C$ were 67, 93, 97, 100, 58, and 52%, respectively. Relative activities at pH 5, 6, 7, and 8 were 59, 100, 95, and 91%, respectively. More than 90% of the activity remained after a 2 hr exposure to 20, 30, or $40^{\circ}C$; about 60% of the activity remained after a 2 hr exposure to $50^{\circ}C$. Almost all activity was lost after exposure to 60 or $70^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. Zymography revealed three agarases with molecular weights of 110, 90, and 55 kDa. Agarose was degraded to neoagarobiose (46.8%), neoagarotetraose (39.7%), and neoagarohexaose (13.5%), confirming the agarase of Agarivorans sp. BK-1 as a ${\beta}$-agarase. The neoagarooligosaccharides generated by this agarase could be used for moisturizing, bacterial growth inhibition, skin whitening, food treatments, cosmetics, and delaying starch degradation.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.1159-1172
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• 2020

This study applied deep convolution neural network based on U-Net and SegNet using long period weather radar data to very short-term rainfall prediction. And the results were compared and evaluated with the translation model. For training and validation of deep neural network, Mt. Gwanak and Mt. Gwangdeoksan radar data were collected from 2010 to 2016 and converted to a gray-scale image file in an HDF5 format with a 1km spatial resolution. The deep neural network model was trained to predict precipitation after 10 minutes by using the four consecutive radar image data, and the recursive method of repeating forecasts was applied to carry out lead time 60 minutes with the pretrained deep neural network model. To evaluate the performance of deep neural network prediction model, 24 rain cases in 2017 were forecast for rainfall up to 60 minutes in advance. As a result of evaluating the predicted performance by calculating the mean absolute error (MAE) and critical success index (CSI) at the threshold of 0.1, 1, and 5 mm/hr, the deep neural network model showed better performance in the case of rainfall threshold of 0.1, 1 mm/hr in terms of MAE, and showed better performance than the translation model for lead time 50 minutes in terms of CSI. In particular, although the deep neural network prediction model performed generally better than the translation model for weak rainfall of 5 mm/hr or less, the deep neural network prediction model had limitations in predicting distinct precipitation characteristics of high intensity as a result of the evaluation of threshold of 5 mm/hr. The longer lead time, the spatial smoothness increase with lead time thereby reducing the accuracy of rainfall prediction The translation model turned out to be superior in predicting the exceedance of higher intensity thresholds (> 5 mm/hr) because it preserves distinct precipitation characteristics, but the rainfall position tends to shift incorrectly. This study are expected to be helpful for the improvement of radar rainfall prediction model using deep neural networks in the future. In addition, the massive weather radar data established in this study will be provided through open repositories for future use in subsequent studies.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.139-147
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• 2021

Livestock manure is used as an organic fertilizer to replace chemical fertilizers after sufficient fermentation in an aerobic bioreactor. On the other hand, liquid manure disposal problems occur repeatedly because soil spraying is restricted during the summer when the crops are growing. To use liquid fertilizer (LF) as an additional nutrient source for crops, it is necessary to reduce the amount of suspended solids (SS) in the liquid fertilizer and secure stability problems against pathogenic microorganisms. This study examined the effects of the simultaneous SS removal and E.coli sterilization in the LF using the microbubble (MB) generator (FeMgO catalyst insertion). The remaining SS were further removed using the integrated microbubble and microfilter system. During the floating process in the MB device, the SS were removed by 57.9%, and the coliform group was not detected (16,200→0 MPN/100 mL). By optimizing the HRT of the integrated system, the removal efficiency of the SS was improved by 92.9% under the 0.1h of HRT condition. After checking the properties of the treated LF, 64.5%, 70.1%, 54.9%, and 51.5% of the TCOD, SCOD, PO4-P, and TN, respectively, were removed. The treated effluent from such an integrated system has a lower SS content than that of the existing LF and does not contain coliforms; therefore, it can be used directly as an additional fertilizer.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.11-36
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• 2021

The solar annual (Sa) and semiannual (Ssa) tides account for much of the non-uniform annual and seasonal variability observed in sea levels. These non-equilibrium tides depend on atmospheric variations, forced by changes in the Sun's distance and declination, as well as on hydrographic conditions. Here we employ tidal harmonic analyses to calculate Sa and Ssa harmonic constants for 21 Korean coastal tidal stations (TS), operated by the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency. We used 19 year-long (1999 to 2017) 1 hr-interval sea level records from each site, and used two conventional harmonic analysis (HA) programs (Task2K and UTide). The stability of Sa harmonic constants was estimated with respect to starting date and record length of the data, and we examined the spatial distribution of the calculated Sa and Ssa harmonic constants. HA was performed on Incheon TS (ITS) records using 369-day subsets; the first start date was January 1, 1999, the subsequent data subset starting 24 hours later, and so on up until the final start date was December 27, 2017. Variations in the Sa constants produced by the two HA packages had similar magnitudes and start date sensitivity. Results from the two HA packages had a large difference in phase lag (about 78°) but relatively small amplitude (<1 cm) difference. The phase lag difference occurred in large part since Task2K excludes the perihelion astronomical variable. Sensitivity of the ITS Sa constants to data record length (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, and 19 years) was also tested to determine the data length needed to yield stable Sa results. HA results revealed that 5 to 9 year sea level records could estimate Sa harmonic constants with relatively small error, while the best results are produced using 19 year-long records. As noted earlier, Sa amplitudes vary with regional hydrographic and atmospheric conditions. Sa amplitudes at the twenty one TS ranged from 15.0 to 18.6 cm, 10.7 to 17.5 cm, and 10.5 to 13.0 cm, along the west coast, south coast including Jejudo, and east coast including Ulleungdo, respectively. Except at Ulleungdo, it was found that the Ssa constituent contributes to produce asymmetric seasonal sea level variation and it delays (hastens) the highest (lowest) sea levels. Comparisons between monthly mean, air-pressure adjusted, and steric sea level variations revealed that year-to-year and asymmetric seasonal variations in sea levels were largely produced by steric sea level variation and inverted barometer effect.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.95-106
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• 2021

The SO₄ in the jarosite structure can be substituted by other oxyanions, and therefore, the transition of jarosite to goethite plays a very important role in controlling the behavior of oxyanions. In this study, the phase change according to the species of the oxyanion in jarosite and the related behavior of the oxyanion was studied by mineralogical and geochemical methods when jarosite, which is coprecipitated with various oxynions, undergoes a phase change by a reductive dissolution. Jarosite substituted by five oxyanions by 5 mol% was used in this study. The mineral phase change induced by reductive dissolution using ammonium oxalate was investigated, and the order of phase transition rate of jarosite to goethite was MoO₄-jarosite ≥ SeO₄-jarosite ≥ CrO₄-jarosite > pure jarosite > SeO₃-jarosite > AsO₄-jarosite, showing that the transition rates vary depending on the substituted oxyanion. The resultant concentration of the leached Fe was slightly different depending on the type of oxyanion and time but did not show a noticeable difference. The concentration of each oxyanion leached according to the change of the mineral phase showed that the order of concentration of oxyanions was Mo > Se(SeO₃) > As > Se(SeO₄) > Cr in general, and showed a slight increase with time. This trend was related to the species of oxyanions rather than mineral phase change. The results of this study showed that the phase transition of jarosite to goethite was affected by the species of oxyanions, but this tendency did not affect the concentrations leached oxyanions.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.127-143
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• 2022

Recently, many attempts to run numerical ocean models in cloud computing environments have been tried actively. A cloud computing environment can be an effective means to implement numerical ocean models requiring a large-scale resource or quickly preparing modeling environment for global or large-scale grids. Many commercial and private cloud computing systems provide technologies such as virtualization, high-performance CPUs and instances, ether-net based high-performance-networking, and remote direct memory access for High Performance Computing (HPC). These new features facilitate ocean modeling experimentation on commercial cloud computing systems. Many scientists and engineers expect cloud computing to become mainstream in the near future. Analysis of the performance and features of commercial cloud services for numerical modeling is essential in order to select appropriate systems as this can help to minimize execution time and the amount of resources utilized. The effect of cache memory is large in the processing structure of the ocean numerical model, which processes input/output of data in a multidimensional array structure, and the speed of the network is important due to the communication characteristics through which a large amount of data moves. In this study, the performance of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), the High Performance Linpack (HPL) benchmarking software package, and STREAM, the memory benchmark were evaluated and compared on commercial cloud systems to provide information for the transition of other ocean models into cloud computing. Through analysis of actual performance data and configuration settings obtained from virtualization-based commercial clouds, we evaluated the efficiency of the computer resources for the various model grid sizes in the virtualization-based cloud systems. We found that cache hierarchy and capacity are crucial in the performance of ROMS using huge memory. The memory latency time is also important in the performance. Increasing the number of cores to reduce the running time for numerical modeling is more effective with large grid sizes than with small grid sizes. Our analysis results will be helpful as a reference for constructing the best computing system in the cloud to minimize time and cost for numerical ocean modeling.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.194-205
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• 2022

Sandbars formed by sediment transportation and sedimentation are some of the most important habitats for specific wildlife and they provide an aesthetic landscape in streams. The purpose of this study was to understand the successional process of the colonization and development of early vegetation over time on sandbars exposed by the opening of a gate at a downstream weir. We selected the following four study sites in the Geumgang River, South Korea: three weir-upstream sites with different gate-opening times and a control site that was not affected by weir operation. Changes in the structural characteristics and spatial distribution of the riparian vegetation on the sandbars exposed after opening the gate at the weir were surveyed according to the different exposure periods of the sandbars at the study sites. The newly formed sandbars accounted for more than 33% of the area of the existing floodplain in the three weir-upstream sites of the Geumgang River after opening the gate at the weir. Nine main plant communities were distributed on the exposed sandbars. These communities were classified as annual mesophytic, perennial hydrophytic, perennial hygrophytic, subtree, and tree vegetation based on their species traits. As the duration of exposure of the sandbar increased, the area of the bare sandbar and the annual herbaceous and perennial hydrophytic communities decreased, and the areas occupied by perennial hygrophytic, subtree, and tree communities increased. Changes in vegetation on the sandbar were classified into three types of succession according to the condition of the aquatic habitat before the gate-opening and the degree of physical disturbance caused by the water flow after the gate-opening. The types of succession were: 1) succession starting from hydrophytes in the lentic aquatic zone, 2) succession starting from annual herbaceous hygrophytes in the lotic aquatic zone, and 3) willow-dominated succession in the disturbed channel side. Our results suggested that the dynamics of successional changes in vegetation should be considered during weir operation to ecologically manage the habitats and landscape of the fluvial landforms, including sandbars in streams.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.242-251
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 8-week β-hydroxybutyrate (β-HB) administration with and without endurance exercise training on endurance exercise performance and skeletal muscle protein synthesis and degradation using a mouse model. Forty-eight male wild-type ICR mice (8 weeks old) were randomly divided into four groups: sedentary control (Sed+Con), (Sed+Con), sedentary β-HB (Sed+β-HB), exercise control (Exe+Con), and exercise β-HB (Exe+β-HB). β-HB was dissolved in PBS (150 mg/ml) and injected subcutaneously daily (250 mg/kg) for 8 weeks. Mice performed 5 days/week of a 20 min treadmill running exercise for 8 weeks. The running exercise was carried out at a speed of 10 m/min at a 10° incline for 5 min, and then the speed was increased by 1 m/min for every 1 min of the remaining 15 min. Following 8 weeks of treatments, visceral fat mass and skeletal muscle mass, blood parameters, and the markers for autophagy and protein synthesis were analyzed. The data were analyzed with one-way ANOVA (p<0.05) using the SPSS 21 program. Eight weeks of Exe+β-HB treatment significantly lowered blood lactate levels compared with the other three groups (Sed+Con, Sed+β-HB, and Exe+β-HB) Exe+β-HB) (p<0.05). Eight weeks of Exe+β-HB significantly increased maximal running time (time to exhaustion) compared with the Sed+Con and Exe+Con groups (p<0.05). Eight weeks of β-HB administration significantly decreased autophagy flux and autophagy-related proteins in the skeletal muscle of mice (p<0.05). Conversely, the combined treatment of β-HB and endurance exercise training increased protein synthesis (mTOR signaling and translation) (p<0.05). The 8-week β-HB treatment and endurance exercise training had synergistic effects on the increase in endurance performance, increase in protein synthesis, and decrease in protein degradation in the skeletal muscle of mice.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.72-82
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• 2024

This study aimed to develop a scientifically and systematically standardized xylooligosaccharide analytical method that can be applied to products with various formulations. The analysis method was conducted using HPLC with Cadenza C₁₈ column, involving pre-column derivatization with 1-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazoline (PMP) and UV detection at 254 nm. The xylooligosaccharide content was analyzed by converting xylooligosaccharide into xylose through acid hydrolysis. The pre-treated methods were compared and evaluated by varying sonication time, acid hydrolysis time, and concentration. Optimal equipment conditions were achieved with a mobile phase consisting of 20 mM potassium phosphate buffer (pH 6)-acetonitrile (78:22, v/v) through isocratic elution at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min (254 nm). Furthermore, we validated the advanced standardized analysis method to support the suitability of the proposed analytical procedure such as specificity, linearity, detection limits (LOD), quantitative limits (LOQ), accuracy, and precision. The standardized analysis method is now in use for monitoring relevant health-functional food products available in the market. Our results have demonstrated that the standardized analysis method is expected to enhance the reliability of quality control for healthy functional foods containing xylooligosaccharide.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.56-76
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• 2024

We for the first time made a successful longest continuous sectional observation in the East Sea by an underwater glider during 95 days from September 18 to December 21 2020 in the Korea along the 106 Line (129.1 °E ~ 131.5 °E at 37.9 °N) of the regular shipboard measurements by the National Institute of Fishery Science (NIFS) and obtained twelve hydrographic sections with high spatiotemporal resolution. The glider was deployed at 129.1 °E in September 18 and conducted 88-days flight from September 19 to December 15 2020, yielding twelve hydrographic sections, and then recovered at 129.2 °E in December 21 after the last 6 days virtual mooring operation. During the total traveled distance of 2550 km, the estimated deviation from the predetermined zonal path had an average RMS distance of 262 m. Based on these high-resolution long-term glider measurements, we conducted a comparative study with the bi-monthly NIFS measurements in terms of spatial and temporal resolutions, and found distinguished features. One is that spatial features of sub-mesoscale such as sub-mesoscale frontal structure and intensified thermocline were detected only in the glider measurements, mainly due to glider's high spatial resolution. The other is the detection of intramonthly variations from the weekly time series of temperature and salinity, which were extracted from glider's continuous sections. Lastly, there were deviations and bias in measurements from both platforms. We argued these deviations in terms of the time scale of variation, the spatial scale of fixed-point observation, and the calibration status of CTD devices of both platforms.