• ALGAE
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.109-127
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• 2024

High production and efficient harvesting of microalgae containing high omega-3 levels are critical concerns for industrial use. Aeration can elevate production of some microalgae by providing CO₂ and O₂. However, it may lower the production of others by generating shear stress, causing severe cell damage. The mixotrophic dinoflagellate Gymnodinium smaydae is a new, promising microalga for omega-3 fatty acid production owing to its high docosahexaenoic acid content, and determining optimal conditions and methods for high omega-3 fatty acid production and efficient harvest using G. smaydae is crucial for its commercial utilization. Therefore, to determine whether continuous aeration is required, we measured densities of G. smaydae and the dinoflagellate prey Heterocapsa rotundata in a 100-L semi-continuous cultivation system under no aeration and continuous aeration conditions daily for 9 days. Furthermore, to determine the optimal conditions for harvesting through centrifugation, different rotational speeds of the continuous centrifuge and different flow rates of the pump injecting G. smaydae + H. rotundata cells into the centrifuge were tested. Under continuous aeration, G. smaydae production gradually decreased; however, without aeration, the production remained stable. Harvesting efficiency and the dry weights of omega-3 fatty acids of G. smaydae + H. rotundata cells at a rotational speed of 16,000 rpm were significantly higher than those at 2,000-8,000 rpm. However, these parameters did not significantly differ at injection pump flow rates of 1.0-4.0 L min^-1. The results of the present study provide a basis for optimized production and harvest conditions for G. smaydae and other microalgae.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.6
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• pp.617-626
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• 2024

The study investigated the behavior of plain and fibered Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) beams under varying loading conditions using integrated analysis of the flexure and acoustic emission tests. The loading rate of testing is -0.25 -2 mm/min. It is observed that on increasing loading rate, flexural strength increases, and toughness decreases. The acoustic emission testing revealed that higher loading rates accelerate crack propagation. Fiber effect and matrix cracking are identified as significant contributors to the release of acoustic emission energy, with fiber rupture/failure and matrix cracking showing rate-dependent behavior. Crack classification analysis indicated that the rise angle (RA) value decreased under quasi-static loading. The average frequency (AF) value increased with the loading rate, but this trend reversed under rate-dependent conditions. K-means analysis identified distinct clusters of crack types with unique frequency and duration characteristics at different loading rates. Furthermore, the historic index and signal strength decreased with increasing loading rate after peak capacity, while the severity index increased in the post-peak zone, indicating more severe damage. The sudden rise in the historic index and cumulative signal strength indicates the possibility of several occurrences, such as the emergence of a significant crack, shifts in cracking modes, abrupt failure, or notable fiber debonding/pull-out. Moreover, there is a distinct rise in the number of AE knees corresponding to the increase in loading rate. The crack mapping from acoustic emission testing aligned with observed failure patterns, validating its use in structural health monitoring.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.4517-4525
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• 2016

Background: Sperm DNA damage is underlying aetiology of poor implantation and pregnancy rates but also affects health of offspring and may also result in denovo mutations in germ line and post fertilization. This may result in complex diseases, polygenic disorders and childhood cancers. Childhood cancer like retinoblastoma (RB) is more prevalent in developing countries and the incidence of RB has increased more than three fold in India in the last decade. Recent studies have documented increased incidence of cancers in children born to fathers who consume alcohol in excess and tobacco or who were conceived by assisted conception. The aetiology of childhood cancer and increased disease burden in these children is lin ked to oxidative stress (OS) and oxidative DNA damage( ODD) in sperm of their fathers. Though several antioxidants are in use to combat oxidative stress, the effect of majority of these formulations on DNA is not known. Yoga and meditation cause significant decline in OS and ODD and aid in regulating OS levels such that reactive oxygen speues meditated signal transduction, gene expression and several other physiological functions are not disrupted. Thus, this study aimed to analyze sperm ODD as a possible etiological factor in childhood cancer and role of simple life style interventions like yoga and meditation in significantly decreasing seminal oxidative stress and oxidative DNA damage and thereby decreasing incidence of childhood cancers. Materials and Methods: A total of 131 fathers of children with RB (non-familial sporadic heritable) and 50 controls (fathers of healthy children) were recruited at a tertiary center in India. Sperm parameters as per WHO 2010 guidelines and reactive oxygen species (ROS), DNA fragmentation index (DFI), 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxy guanosine (8-OHdG) and telomere length were estimated at day 0, and after 3 and 6 months of intervention. We also examined the compliance with yoga and meditation practice and smoking status at each follow-up. Results: The seminal mean ROS levels (p<0.05), sperm DFI (p<0.001), 8-OHdG (p<0.01) levels were significantly higher in fathers of children with RB, as compared to controls and the relative mean telomere length in the sperm was shorter. Levels of ROS were significantly reduced in tobacco users (p<0.05) as well as in alcoholics (p<0.05) after intervention. DFI reduced significantly (p<0.05) after 6 months of yoga and meditation practice in all groups. The levels of oxidative DNA damage marker 8-OHdG were reduced significantly after 3 months (p<0.05) and 6 months (p<0.05) of practice. Conclusions: Our results suggest that OS and ODD DNA may contribute to the development of childhood cancer. This may be due to accumulation of oxidized mutagenic base 8OHdG, and elevated MDA levels which results in MDA dimers which are also mutagenic, aberrant methylation pattern, altered gene expression which affect cell proliferation and survival through activation of transcription factors. Increased mt DNA mutations and aberrant repair of mt and nuclear DNA due to highly truncatred DNA repair mechanisms all contribute to sperm genome hypermutability and persistant oxidative DNA damage. Oxidative stress is also associated with genome wide hypomethylation, telomere shortening and mitochondrial dysfunction leading to genome hypermutability and instability. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report decline in OS and ODD and improvement in sperm DNA integrity following adoption of meditation and yoga based life style modification.This may reduce disease burden in next generation and reduce incidence of childhood cancers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2013

This study was performed to investigate the investigated effects of dietary supplementation of vitamin C and E on the growth performance and stress response in broiler chickens. Stress response was analyzed by the quantity of telomeric DNA, the rate of DNA damage and the expression levels of heat shock proteins (HSPs) and hydroxyl-3-methyl-glutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR) genes on tissues and blood. The telomere length and telomere shortening rates were analyzed by quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization on the nuclei of lymphocytes and tissues. The DNA damage rate of lymphocytes was quantified by the comet assay. The expression levels of HSP70, HSP90s and HMGCR genes were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in lymphocytes. In results, there was no significant difference among treatments in body weight, weight gain, feed intake and mortality. The telomere shortening rate of the lymphocytes was significantly lower in the vitamin E supplemented group than the control group. The DNA damage was also decreased supplemented with vitamin C and E, as compared to the control group. The vitamin E supplemented group had a significant positive effect on the expressions of HMGCR, HSP90-${\alpha}$ and HSP90-${\beta}$ in lymphocytes, but had no significance on HSP70, as compared to the control group. We concluded that the dietary supplementation of vitamin E (100 mg/kg feed) had reduced the individual physiological stress response without stunt growth in broiler chickens.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1628-1632
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• 2007

The present study describes the preliminary evaluation of antioxidant activities and antigenotoxic effect of Rhododendron mucromulatum Turcz. flowers (RMF). The samples were prepared by extracting RMF with four different solvents (methanol, ethanol, acetone, and water), and antioxidant properties were evaluated by determining total phenolic contents (TPC), DPPH radical scavenging activity (RSA), and reducing power (RP). Water extract showed the highest total phenol content (328.1 mg/g gallic acid equivalents). Acetone extract showed the most potent RSA and RP. The $IC_{50}$ for RSA and RP in the acetone extract were 78 mg/mL and 454 mg/mL, respectively. The 200 mM $H_2O_2$ induced DNA damage, measured by Comet assay, was inhibited with water, methanol and acetone extract in dose dependent manner in human leukocytes. The inhibition rates were 42, 62, and 52% at the concentrations of 50 mg/mL of water, methanol and acetone extracts, respectively. These results suggest that R. mucromulatum Turcz. has significant antioxidative activity and protective effect against oxidative DNA damage.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.48-53
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• 1984

Using the Duff and Noland's method, the annual ring growth patterns of the red pine in the natural stands were examined at two locations; Seocheon, Chungnam-do where the stand had been infested with the pine needle gall midge, Thecodiplosis japonensis, during the years from 1975 to 1978, and Hongsong, Chungnam-do where had been no incidence of the insect damage. The results obtained are as follows: 1) With the normal red pine of 13 year old, the growth pattern in the oblique sequence indicates that the annual growth rates are maximum at the few terminal internodes, and decrease gradually with the downward internodes. Such characteristic of the growth pattern is not clear in the horizontal sequence of annual rings. 2) The indications of the radial growth reduction of the pine tree due to the pine gall midge infestation could be examined with any of three series at the crown level internodes; horizontal, vertical and oblique series. For the basal internodes, however, the horizontal series appeared to be inadequate for the analysis of the damage impact because it seemed to be masked by various factors other than direct effects of the damage. 3) Of the three ways of radial growth analyses, oblique sequence seems to be the most usefull, especially for the detection of the impact on growth caused by incipient or light infestation.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.395-408
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• 2013

Environmental condition can induce changes in early life-history traits in order to maximise the ecological fitness. Here I investigated how temperature change and variation in human aquatic activity/behaviour affect early life-history consequences in fish using a dynamic-state-dependent model. In this study, I developed a general fish's life-history model including three life-history states depend-ing on foraging activity, such as body mass, mass of reproductive tissue (i.e., gonadal development) and accumulated stress (i.e., cellular or physiological damage). I assumed the level of foraging activity maximises reproductive success-ultimately, fitness. The model predicts that growth rate, development of reproductive tissues and damage accumulation are greater in higher temperature whereas higher human aquatic activity rapidly reduced the growth rate and development of reproductive tissue and increased damage accumulation. While higher foraging activity in higher temperature is less affected by human aquatic activity, the foraging activity in lower temperature rapidly declined with human aquatic activity. Moreover, lower survival rate in higher temperature or human aquatic activity was independent on mortality rate due to human aquatic activity or mortality rate when foraging activity, respectively. However, the survival rate in lower temperature or human aquatic activity was dependent on these mortality rates. My findings suggest that including of early life-history traits in relation to climate-change and human aquatic activity on the analysis may improve conservation plan and health assessment in aquatic ecosystem.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.56-62
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• 2014

This study aims to investigate the applicability of supercritical fluid extraction as a dewaxing technique to restore the beeswax-treated volume of the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty in various deterioration and damage conditions. Thus, this study analyzed the dewaxing efficiency and changes in physical and morphological properties before and after dewaxing, by applying the optimal supercritical fluid extraction dewaxing condition ($70^{\circ}C$, 40 MPa, $CO_2$, Co-solvent 20% DCM, 2 hour) to 3 kinds of beeswax-treated paper with different deterioration rates (dry artificial aging of 10, 20 and 30 days at $120^{\circ}C$). After dry artificial aging at $120^{\circ}C$ for 30 days, the average molecular weight of the beeswax-treated specimen was $1.856{\times}10^5g/mol$, showing deterioration about 80% of the beeswax-treated paper before dewaxing. It was a similar level to the molecular weight of the bees-waxed volume of the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty that has a higher degree of damage. As a result of analyzing the dewaxing efficiency through FT-IR analysis, this study discovered that it was possible to effectively dewax beeswax-treated paper in the range of deterioration 20 to 80% with this supercritical fluid extraction dewaxing technique applied. As a result of analyzing changes in the physical and morphological properties before and after dewaxing, the viscosity tended to decrease to a slight degree, and since no morphological deformation or damage of stencil fibers was found, it was concluded possible to conduct stable dewaxing through this supercritical fluid extraction technique.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.131-139
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• 2001

This paper aims at surveying through case studies the planting possibility on the interval artificial ground between the bank and the core landfill of the first section of works in the SUDOKWON Landfill area landfill area which was completed, followed by the layer-on-layer landfill process involving the latch or sealing layer against emitting landfill gas from the reclaimed waste. The survey results are as follows; 1. The layers of the artificial planting ground on the landfill were established on the basis of top-on-top procedure for a waste layer, a topping soil layer (T=50cm), a gas blocking layer (broken stones T=30cm), a filter layer (non-woven fabric 700g), a sheet protecting soil layer (T=20cm), and a blocking layer (HDPE SHEET 2.0mm), an irrigation layer (SAND T=30cm), a filter layer (non-woven fabric 700g), a sheet protecting soil layer (T=20cm), and a blocking layer (HDPE SHEET 2.0mm), an irrigation layer (SAND T=30cm), a filter layer (non-woven fabric 700g), a planting layer (T=90cm+), a top mound (T=2m). 2. Since no direct damage on the planting layer affected by the landfill gas was detected, planting is found to be still possible and successful except the severely unequal subsidence portion. 3. The mortality rate is discovered different on different trees: Pinus thunbergii (H3.0$\times$W1.0m) 11.25%, Pinus thunbergii (H2.5$\times$W0.8m) 4.73%, Koelreuteira paniculata 8.67%, Hibiscus syriacus 5.68%, Deutzia parviflora 6.50%, Forsythia koreana 8.17%, Rho. yedoense v. poukhanese 32.22%, and Spiraea pru v. symplicifolia 18.89%; although the last two of which are generally considered to have a strong generic growing character, they are subject to be weakened when exposed to the contaminated microclimate of the site like landfill gas. 4. The damage rates, on Pinus thunbergii, Koelreuteria paniculata, Hibiscus syracus, Forsythia koreana, Deutzia parviflora, Rho. yedoense v. poukhanense were shown to decrease to 7.31-17.69% in the second check (June 2000) lower than 5.77-46.92% in the first examination (June 1999), whereas the damage on Spiraea pru v. symplicifolia relatively increased. It is believed that preparatory method of the air pollution, change of temperature, odor by emitting landfill gas, and minute dust from vehicles should be made, and a research on this matter will be conducted in the near future.