• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2019

Lactobacillus rhamnosus BFE5264, isolated from a Maasai fermented milk product ("kule naoto"), was previously shown to exhibit bile acid resistance, cholesterol assimilation, and adhesion to HT29-MTX cells in vitro. In this study, we re-annotated and analyzed the previously reported complete genome sequence of strain BFE5264. The genome consists of a circular chromosome of 3,086,152 bp and a putative plasmid, which is the largest one identified among L. rhamnosus strains. Among the 2,883 predicted protein-coding genes, those with carbohydrate-related functions were the most abundant. Genome analysis of strain BFE5264 revealed two consecutive CRISPR regions and no known virulence factors or antimicrobial resistance genes. In addition, previously known highly variable regions in the genomes of L. rhamnosus strains were also evident in strain BFE5264. Pairwise comparison with the most studied probiotic strain L. rhamnosus GG revealed strain BFE5264-specific deletions, probably due to insertion sequence-mediated recombination. The latter was associated with loss of the spaCBA pilin gene cluster and exopolysaccharide biosynthetic genes. Comparative genomic analysis of the sequences from all available L. rhamnosus strains revealed that they were clustered into two groups, being within the same species boundary based on the average nucleotide identities. Strain BFE5264 had a sister group relationship with the group that contained strain GG, but neither ANI-based hierarchical clustering nor core-gene-based phylogenetic tree construction showed a clear distinctive pattern associated with the isolation source, implying that the genotype alone cannot account for their ecological niches. These results provide insights into the probiotic mechanisms of strain BFE5264 at the genomic level.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.661-668
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• 2018

Geosmin is volatile metabolites produced by a range of filamentous cyanobacteria which causes taste and odor problems in drinking water. Molecular ecological methods which target biosynthetic genes (geoA) are widely adopted to detect geosmin-producing cyanobacteria. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential production capability of 8 strains isolated from the Nakdong River. Ultimately, a suggestion for a genetical monitoring tool for the identification of geosmin producers in domestic waters was to be made. Geosmin was detected using solid phase microextraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry (SPME GC-MS) in two strains of Dolichospermum plactonicum (DGUC006, DGUC012) that were cultured for 28 day. The highest concentrations during the experiment period was $17,535ngL^{-1}$ and $14,311ngL^{-1}$ respectively. Additionally, geoA genes were amplified using two primers (geo78F/971R and geo78F/982R) from strains shown to produce geosmin, while amplification products were not detected in any of non-producing strains. PCR product (766 bp) was slightly shorter than the expected size for geosmin producers. According to the BLAST analysis, amplified genes were at nucleotide level with Anabaena ucrainica (HQ404996, HQ404997), Dolichospermum planctonicum (KM13400) and Dolichospermum ucrainicum (MF996872) between 99 ~ 100 %. Both strains were thus confirmed as potential geosmin-producing species. We concluded that the molecular method of analysis was a useful tool for monitoring potential cyanobacterial producers of geosmin.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2019.10a
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• pp.107-107
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• 2019

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), characterized by chronic inflammatory response and dysregulation of immune function. The severity of US has been influenced by environmental factors and food habit. The immune modulatory, anti-inflammatory and steroidal medicine have been used for the treatment of UC. However, long-term administration of those medicine is accompanied with side-effect. So, it is necessary to develop the non side-effect medicine using natural product. Prebiotics influences intestinal condition and food consumption. The heredity, immunity and environmental condition are related with occurrence of UC. In recent study, UC patients had lower level of prebiotics such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium compared with healthy people. Also, previous study announced that imbalance of enteric flora aggravates the severity of UC. The effectiveness of probiotics might affect colon ability and viable bacteria also could promote the proliferation of beneficial intestinal bacteria. Prebiotics, such as herbal medicine, could lead to balance of intestinal bacteria or increase beneficial bacteria. So, proper choice of herbal medicine could control the intestinal condition. This study aimed to investigate the effect of mixture of probiotics and prebiotics (synbiotics) on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced UC in vivo. The synbiotics consist of Lactobacillus buchneri, Polymnia sonchifolia and Glycine max Merr. in this study. To evaluate the effect of synbiotics, 3% DSS was administered in BALB/c mice and synbiotics was daily administered for experimental days. The administration of synbiotics regulated colon length shortening, body weight change and disease activity index effectively. Also, extract of synbiotics upregulated survival ability of Lactobacillus buchneri in gut condition. These results suggest that mixture of probiotics and prebiotics, called as synbiotics, could influence intestinal condition also regulate the colon disease. Synbiotics might be a therapeutic agent for treatment of UC.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.108-128
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• 2002

In order to investigate the ecological characteristics of phytoplankton communities around a nuclear power plant in Gori coastal waters of the South East Sea, Wolseong and Uljin coastal waters of the East Sea and Younggwang coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, the standing crops and chlorophyll-$\alpha$ concentrations of phytoplankton were studied during 1992~1996 and the relationships between standing crops and environmental variables were analyzed. The concentrations of nitrogenous nutrients were on average 0.101, 0.094, 0.072 and 0.108mg/$\ell$ and those of phosphorus were on average 0.007, 0.008, 0.006 and 0.009mg/$\ell$ in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Younggwang, respectively. The N:P ratios were highly variable, ranging from 3.2 to 57.3, from 3.1 to 109.0, from 2.6 to 102.0 and from 1.0 to 165.0 in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Younggwang, respectively. The concentrations of suspended solids were on average 18.7, 16.7, 11.6 and 52.7mg/$\ell$ and transparencies were on average 3.8, 5.4, 7.9 and 0.7 m in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Younggwang, respectively. Total standing crops of phytoplankton averaged 710,659, 687,508, 656,245 and 1,278,173cells/$\ell$ in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Yaunggwang, respectively. The standing crops of microplankton(>20${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) averaged 357,546, 333,638, 276,407 and 592,975cells/$\ell$ those of nanoplankton(<20${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) averaged 353,113, 353,870, 379,838 and 574,563cells/$\ell$ in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Younggwang, respectively. While standing crops of diatoms were averaged 282,009, 284,710, 238,758 and 574,563 cells/$\ell$, those of dinoflagellates were averaged 46,079, 35,401, 32,906 and 16,749 cells/$\ell$ in Gori, Wolseong, Uljin and Younggwang, respectively. The seasonal standing crops of diatoms in Gori, Wolseong and Uljin were higher in Spring than other seasons, but were lower in Summer than other seasons in Younggwang. The seasonal standing crops of dinoflagellates in Gori and Younggwang were higher in Summer than other seasons, but were higher in Autumn than other seasons in U]jin. Average of chlorophyll-$\alpha$ concentrations ranged from 2.16 to 4.28$\mu\textrm{g}$/$\ell$ in 4 study areas with the highest concentration occurred in Younggwang. Indices of species diversity ranged from 2.11 to 2.24 in 4 study areas. While community structures of phytoplankton were unstable during winter and stable during summer in Gori, Wolseong and Uljln coastal waters, those of phytoplankton were stable during winter and summer than during spring and autumn in Yaunggwang. The analysis results of Pearson product moment correlation coefficient between standing crops and environmental variables showed that distributions of standing crops were affected by transparencies, suspended solids, and some nutrient(N $O_3$$^{[-10]}$ -N, P $O_4$$^{3-}$-P), even though the degree of influences were a little different according to the season and the surveyed zone.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.213-226
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• 1993

In Korea, the urban studies of geography have mainly dealt with such a series of research as system of urban place and internal structure of urban area. The existing studies have been carried out with ecological approach. Ecologists, now a days, regard organiation and transfor-mation of the urban space as the process of invasion, succession, and segregation. However it is more proper that cities should be considered not as fragmantary objects, as some ecologists insist, but as synthetic ones in social structure. This research, with adopting a case of the renewasl of central area in Seoul, tried to make it clear that the formation and transition of the city is a product of social structure and examined polical and economic logic which exists in variation of urban space in detail. The results of this study are as follows; Urban renewal of central area is closely related with production and reproduction in capitalist society. In urban center, as business activities had increased since 1973 due to decen-tralization of production process, the necessity of reorganizing the land use in existing central area accordingly increased. The urban renewal program of central area in Seoul was inrroduced under such situation. The urban renewal of central area reflecting the capital logic has changed the central area with six hundred year's tradition. From the urban renewal of central area, not only was the central area, which traditionally had been mixed with various fun-ctions, simplified into the unitary area of busi-ness, but also physical landscape changed. As the land lot in renewal area expanded into regular shape, buildings became larger and taller. The program tremendously raised the price of related area. Aiming at these profits caused by the raised price, a great number of capitalists participated in the program. And as the benefit ratio of the manufacture sector continuously dropped with the economic recession, the pro-gram was carried out much more vigorously. That was because the idle capital accumulated during the recession was invested in property sector and was self-proliferated. The urban renewal raised the land value of central area and drove out the people living in this area. The people moved into the whole parts of the city resulting diffused squatter settlements. And the urban changes in central area were results of the policy of municipal authorities, who supported and systematized the changes lawfully and administratively, as well as reali-zation of capital logic. Due to the renewal policies of central area in Seoul, much more renewals by the only capitalists were carried out than those by the people themselves living in that area. The integration of land ownership in the law of urban renewal shows the reason of that. Moreover, the law allows the third deve-loper to participate in the tasks and admits the land expropriation rights. The municipal autho-rities guaranteed the profitability of the tasks through finacial aid, tax benifit, and relaxation of regulations for construction. As examined above, the changes in the land use of urban space have been led not by the ecological process of development of the city itself, but by the restructuring of capitalism and the intervention of the government authorities.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.70-77
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the economic value of an urban landscape. The site of this study was Independence Park in Seoul. Before measuring economic valuation, an amount of view analysis was performed to learn the visual characteristics of the landscape. As a result, the green space ratio of the park is approximately 64%. This study estimates the intrinsic value of an urban landscape that might be included in housing prices using a hedonic price model. The hedonic price model is a statistical analysis that is often used to estimate intrinsic values of certain attributes of a product. The Box-Cox model was adopted as an analysis tool while the housing price for $3.3m^2$ was used as a dependent variable and housing and landscape features as independent variables. Results show that the value of the landscape of the Independence Park is approximately 2.2% of the housing market price. The Landscape variables of the park is the second most significant of the 8 variables. This shows that residents perceived the view of the urban landscape as one of the most significant factors in their living environment. The study also indicates that urban landscapes play important roles in improving quality of life and in influencing housing prices. The implication of the study can be said to be the potential of the urban landscape as a significant urban infrastructure. These results can be used to help make policy decisions to preserve and/or develop urban landscapes.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.20 no.2 s.49
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• pp.109-121
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• 2005

A chemical ranking and scoring (CRS-Korea) system was developed and proposed to use as the first step to prioritize the toxic chemicals for the purpose of monitoring and detailed risk assessment that might follow as necessary. The CRS-Korea system takes a basic concept of risk assessment (both human health risk and ecological risk) in that risk score is determined by the product of toxicity score and exposure score. Included in the toxicity category are acute toxicity, chronic/sub -chronic toxicity, carcinogenicity, and other toxicity. The exposure category consists of quantity released to the environment, bioconcentration, and persistence. A consistent scheme and a comprehensive chemical data base are offered in the CRS-Korea system to calculate a score for the each component in the two categories by using specific physicochemical, fate, and toxic properties and the quantity of the chemical used. The toxicity score is obtained by adding up all the individual scores for the components in the toxicity category. The exposure score is determined by multiplication of the score of the quantity released with the sum of persistent score and bioconcentration score. Equal weight is given to the toxicity score and the exposure score. As the CRS-Korea system was applied to identify 50 national priority chemicals, it was found that significant data gap exists on toxicity and fate properties and that the uncertainty associated with estimating the quantify released to the environment is notably high. The proposed CRS system is only a screening tool in the first step toward the priority setting and should be used with expert judgement and other considerations necessary.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.549-560
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• 2015

The priorities of siting restriction was derived from quantification of environmental hazard according to industrial classification based on 'Chemical Ranking and Scoring System(CRS)' which is handling the discharge characteristics of 31 industrial classifications regulated from locating at 'Industrial Complex in Rural Area(ICRA)'. CRS that is utilizing the data of 'Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers(PRTR)' is applied to determine human health risk and ecological risk which are calculated by discharged amount and materials $LC_{50}$ according to water, soil and air media based on industrial classification. From this process, exposure assessment and toxicity assessment for integrating the adverse environmental impact and the mitigation effect of environmental risk according to the development of environmental technologies into establishing the rational landuse management method for the 31 industrial classifications regulated from locating at ICRA was analyzed. From the assessment result of the siting restriction removal at ICRA for 31 industrial classifications, based on 2012 year reference 6 industries that includes Manufacture of Guilt Coloration Surface Processing Steel Materials, Manufacture of Biological Product, Manufacture of Smelting Refining and Alloys of Copper, Dyeing and Finishing of Fibers and Yarns, Manufacture of Other Basic Iron and Steel n.e.c., Rolling Drawing and Extruding of Non-ferrous Metals n.e.c. are calculated as having relatively lower environmental hazards, thus it is judged that the siting restriction mitigation at ICRA is possible for the 6 industrial classifications that are not discharging the specific hazardous water contaminants during manufacturing process.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.102-115
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• 2015

Several emergy researches have been carried out to estimate the value of marine ecosystem services in Korea over the last decade. Their results cannot be compared mainly due to inconsistency in emergy-money ratios used to convert emergy unit into monetary unit. This study aimed at providing a standardized format for the emergy evaluation of the Korean economy and environment for different emergy evaluations to be compatible. Even though the area of the continental shelf increased in this study compared to those of previous studies, areaweighted average tidal range for the entire continental shelf of Korea resulted in smaller tidal range, decreasing the final emergy input from tide. However, emergy inputs from nonrenewable resources and purchased goods and services increased with new categorization and use of more detailed data, combined with updated unit emergy values. This led to higher emergy-money ratio for the Korean economy, indicating that previous emergy valuations might have overestimated the contributions of marine ecosystem to the real wealth of the Korean society. The base year for gross domestic product used in the emergy evaluation needs to be clearly indicated due to its impact on the calculation of the emergy-money ratio. A standardized emergy table for the Korean economy will contribute to ensuring consistency among future emergy researches on the valuation of marine ecosystem services.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.247-259
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• 2007

In this study, we examined the flux of carbon and water using an eco-hydrological model, Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System (RHESSys). Our purposes were to develop a set of parameters optimized for a well-designed experimental watershed (Gwangneung Research Watershed, GN) and then, to test suitability of the parameters for predicting carbon and water fluxes of other watershed with different regimes of climate, topography, and vegetation structure (i.e Gangseonry Watershed in Mt. Jumbong, GS). Field datasets of stream flow, soil water content (SWC), and wood biomass product (WBP) were utilized for model parameterization and validation. After laborious parameterization processes, RHESSys was validated with the field observations from the GN watershed. The parameter set identified at the GN watershed was then applied to the GS watershed in Mt. Jumbong, which resulted in good agreement for SWC but poor predictability for WBP. Our study showed that RHESSys simulated reliable SWC at the GS by adjusting site-specific porosity only. In contrast, vegetation productivity would require more rigorous site-specific parameterization and hence, further study is necessary to identify primary field ecophysiological variables for enhancing model parameterization and application to multiple watersheds.