• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.630-638
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• 2019

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 310 times higher than that of carbon dioxide. In this study, an N₂O-reducing consortium was obtained by enrichment culture using advanced treatment sludge as the inoculum. The dominant bacteria in the consortium were Sulfurovum (17.95%), Geobacter (14.63%), Rectinema (11.45%), and Chlorobium (8.24%). The consortium displayed optimal N₂O reducing activity when acetate was supplied as the carbon source at a carbon/nitrogen ratio (mol·mol^-1) of 6.3. The N₂O reduction rate increased with increasing N₂O concentration at less than 3,000 ppm. Kinetic analysis revealed that the maximum N₂O reduction rate of the consortium was 163.9 ㎍-N·g-VSS^-1·h^-1. Genes present in the consortium included nosZ (reduction of nitrous oxide to N₂), narG (reduction of nitrate to nitrite), nirK (reduction of nitrite to nitric oxide), and norB (reduction of nitric oxide to nitrous oxide). These results indicate that the N₂O-reducing consortium is a promising bioresource that can be used in denitrification and N₂O mitigation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.937-945
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• 2020

N-acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL)-mediated quorum sensing (QS) plays a major role in development of biofilms, which contribute to rise in infections and biofouling in water-related industries. Interference in QS, called quorum quenching (QQ), has recieved a lot of attention in recent years. Rhodococcus spp. are known to have prominent quorum quenching activity and in previous reports it was suggested that this genus possesses multiple QQ enzymes, but only one gene, qsdA, which encodes an AHL-lactonase belonging to phosphotriesterase family, has been identified. Therefore, we conducted a whole genome sequencing and analysis of Rhodococcus sp. BH4 isolated from a wastewater treatment plant. The sequencing revealed another gene encoding a QQ enzyme (named jydB) that exhibited a high AHL degrading activity. This QQ enzyme had a 46% amino acid sequence similarity with the AHL-lactonase (AidH) of Ochrobactrum sp. T63. HPLC analysis and AHL restoration experiments by acidification revealed that the jydB gene encodes an AHL-lactonase which shares the known characteristics of the α/β hydrolase family. Purified recombinant JydB demonstrated a high hydrolytic activity against various AHLs. Kinetic analysis of JydB revealed a high catalytic efficiency (k_cat/K_M) against C4-HSL and 3-oxo-C6 HSL, ranging from 1.88 x 10⁶ to 1.45 x 10⁶ M^-1 s^-1, with distinctly low K_M values (0.16-0.24 mM). This study affirms that the AHL degrading activity and biofilm inhibition ability of Rhodococcus sp. BH4 may be due to the presence of multiple quorum quenching enzymes, including two types of AHL-lactonases, in addition to AHL-acylase and oxidoreductase, for which the genes have yet to be described.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.274-281
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• 2015

Thermal and nuclear power plants on shore commonly use the sea water for cooling facility. Discharged cooling water has the high kinematic energy potential due to amount of water flux. Numerical analysis was made to find the suitable combinations between the arrangement of tidal turbines and the overall dimensions of the discharged channel. Several parameters such as the turbine diameter to inlet size, and the axial distance to turbine size were investigated. Power coefficients for various test conditions were also compared to see the effect of inlet configurations such as single inlet and dual inlet. For the single inlet, the mean power coefficient appeared to be gradually decreased with increasing distance, and the maximum power was obtained when the turbine diameter was same as the inlet diameter. For the dual inlet, the tendency was similar so that the better result when the turbine diameter was same as the inlet diameter. It is expected that the present methodology can be extensively utilized to harness the high kinetic energy flow of the discharge channel of power plant.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.614-620
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• 2009

We report non-specific immune responses and its disease resistance against Edwardsiella tarda by alga mixture (HE; Hizikia:Ecklonia) in olive flounder for the first time. Five isonitrogenous (44% crude protein) and isocaloric (17.1 MJ $kg^{-1}$) diets were formulated to have 0%, 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% of the alga mixture. One of five experimental diets was fed triplicate groups of fish (30 fish/group) to apparent satiation in a flow through system. After a two week feeding, blood was sampled at 3, 6, 12, 24 h after the last feeding for a kinetic measurement of nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) activity and healthy fish with similar sizes in each tank were selected and injected with 1 mL of E. tarda suspension ($1.0\times10^7$ CFU/mL) to evaluate the disease resistance of the fish. Dietary supplementation of alga mixtures resulted in significantly higher non-specific immune responses compared with the fish fed the control diet. The cumulative mortality was significantly lower in the fish groups fed alga mixture containing diets than control group in the challenge test with E. tarda. Therefore, the results in this study indicate that dietary supplementation of Hizikia and Ecklonia mixtures enhance the non-specific immune responses and a disease resistance of olive flounder.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.275-289
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• 2008

Large eddy simulations have been performed within and over different types of urban building arrays. This paper adopted three dimensionless parameters, building frontal area density (${\lambda}_f$) the variation degree of building height (${\sigma}_h$), and the staggered degree of building range ($r_s$), to study the systematic influence of building spacing, height and layout on wind and turbulent characteristics. The following results have been achieved: (1) As ${\lambda}_f$ decrease from 0.25 to 0.18, the mean flow patterns transfer from "skimming" flow to "wake interference" flow, and as ${\lambda}_f$ decrease from 0.06 to 0.04, the mean flow patterns transfer from "wake interference" flow to "isolated roughness" flow. With increasing ${\lambda}_f$, wind velocity within arrays increases, and the vortexes in front of low buildings would break, even disappear, whereas the vortexes in front of tall buildings would strengthen and expand. Tall buildings have greater disturbance on wind than low buildings do. (2) All the wind velocity profiles and the upstream profile converge at the height of 2.5H approximately. The decay of wind velocity within the building canopy was in positive correlation with ${\lambda}_f$ and $r_s$. If the height of building arrays is variable, Macdonald's wind velocity model should be modified through introducing ${\sigma}_h$, because wind velocity decreases at the upper layers of the canopy and increases at the lower layers of the canopy. (3) The maximum of turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) always locates at 1.2 times as high as the buildings. TKE within the canopy decreases with increasing ${\lambda}_f$ and $r_s$ but the maximum of TKE are very close though ${\sigma}_h$ varies. (4) Wind velocity profile follows the logarithmic law approximately above the building canopy. The Zero-plane displacement $z_d$ heighten with increasing ${\lambda}_f$, whereas the maximum of and Roughness length $z_0$ occurs when ${\lambda}_f$ is about 0.14. $z_d$ and $z_0$ heighten linearly with ${\sigma}_h$ and $r_s$, If ${\sigma}_h$ is large enough, $z_d$ may become higher than the average height of buildings.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.989-996
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• 2009

In this study, the effects of biofilter media type (three different activated carbons and anthracite), empty bed contact time (EBCT) and temperature on the removal of four aldehyde species (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glyoxal and methylglyoxal) in BAC filters were investigated. Experiments were conducted at three water temperature (5, 15 and $25^{\circ}C$) and four EBCTs (5, 10, 15, and 20 min). The experimental results indicated that the coal based BAC retained more bacterial biomass on the surface of the activated carbon than the other BACs, and increasing EBCT or increasing water temperature also increased the four aldehyde species removal in BAC filters. To achieve above 80% of removal efficiency for four aldehyde species in a BAC filter, above 15 min EBCT at $5^{\circ}C$ and 10 min EBCT at above $15^{\circ}C$ were required. The kinetic analysis indicated a first-order reaction rate for the biodegradation of four aldehyde species at various water temperatures. Data obtained from the BAC filters at various temperatures were also used to evaluate pseudo first-order rate constants for four aldehyde species. The half-lives evaluated for formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glyoxal and methylglyoxal in the coal-based BAC ranging from 0.89 to 3.19 min, from 0.75 to 3.35 min, from 2.16 to 4.72 min and from 1.49 to 3.86 min, respectively, could be used to assist water utilities in designing and operating BAC filters.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.49-57
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• 2020

Due to the sewage sludge's characteristics of high water content and low calorific value, it is hard to use sewage sludge as an energy source. In this study, we investigated production of bio-solid fuel which is mixed both sewage sludge and woody biomass in order to improve the sewage sludge's characteristics and replace fossil fuels. A thermogravimetric analysis was used to investigate the co-combustion characteristics of the mixed coal and bio-solid fuel of 5%, 10%, 15%, respectively. The analysis was carried out under non-isothermal conditions by raising the internal temperature of 25℃ to 900℃ with an increment of 10℃/min. In the case of comparing single coal sample and mixture sample of coal and bio-solid fuel, the initiation combustion temperature has slightly changed. However, both the maximum combustion temperature and the termination start combustion temperature were hardly noticeable. The initiation combustion was occurred between 200~315℃ and the thermal decomposition causing a significant weight change occurred between 350~700℃. As a result of the kinetic analysis of the co-combustion, the activation energy was decreased as the mixing rate was higher. Therefore, it is able to co-combust the mixed coal and bio-solid fuel in power plants.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.1012-1020
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• 2011

A gene coding for an endoglucanase (EglA), of the glycosyl hydrolase family 12 and derived from Aspergillus niger VTCC-F021, was cloned and sequenced. The cDNA sequence, 717 bp, and its putative endoglucanase, a 238 aa protein with a predicted molecular mass of 26 kDa and a pI of 4.35, exhibited 98.3-98.7% and 98.3-98.6% identities, respectively, with cDNA sequences and their corresponding endoglucanases from Aspergillus niger strains from the GenBank. The cDNA was overexpressed in Pichia pastoris GS115 under the control of an AOX1 promoter with a level of 1.59 U/ml culture supernatant, after 72 h of growth in a YP medium induced with 1% (v/v) of methanol. The molecular mass of the purified EglA, determined by SDS-PAGE, was 33 kDa, with a specific activity of 100.16 and 19.91 U/mg toward 1% (w/v) of ${\beta}$-glucan and CMC, respectively. Optimal enzymatic activity was noted at a temperature of $55^{\circ}C$ and a pH of 5. The recombinant EglA (rEglA) was stable over a temperature range of $30-37^{\circ}C$ and at pH range of 3.5-4.5. Metal ions, detergents, and solvents tested indicated a slightly inhibitory effect on rEglA activity. Kinetic constants ($K_m$, $V_{max}$, $k_{cat}$, and $k_{cat}/K_m$) determined for rEglA with ${\beta}$-glucan as a substrate were 4.04 mg/ml, 102.04 U/mg, 2,040.82 $min^{-1}$, and 505.05, whereas they were 10.17 mg/ml, 28.99 U/mg, 571.71 $min^{-1}$, and 57.01 with CMC as a substrate, respectively. The results thus indicate that the rEglA obtained in this study is highly specific toward ${\beta}$-glucan. The biochemical properties of rEglA make it highly valuable for downstream biotechnological applications, including potential use as a feed enzyme.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1413-1420
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• 2014

Phytate is an antinutritional factor that impacts the bioavailability of essential minerals such as $Ca^{2+}$, $Mg^{2+}$, $Mn^{2+}$, $Zn^{2+}$, and $Fe^{2+}$ by forming insoluble mineral-phytate salts. These insoluble mineral-phytate salts are hydrolyzed rarely by monogastric animals, because they lack the hydrolyzing phytases and thus excrete the majority of them. The ${\beta}$-propeller phytases (BPPs) hydrolyze these insoluble mineral-phytate salts efficiently. In this study, we cloned a novel BPP gene from a marine Pseudomonas sp. This Pseudomonas BPP gene (PsBPP) had low sequence identity with other known phytases and contained an extra internal repeat domain (residues 24-279) and a typical BPP domain (residues 280-634) at the C-terminus. Structure-based sequence alignment suggested that the N-terminal repeat domain did not possess the active-site residues, whereas the C-terminal BPP domain contained multiple calcium-binding sites, which provide a favorable electrostatic environment for substrate binding and catalytic activity. Thus, we overexpressed the BPP domain from Pseudomonas sp. to potentially hydrolyze insoluble mineral-phytate salts. Purified recombinant PsBPP required $Ca^{2+}$ or $Fe^{2+}$ for phytase activity, indicating that PsBPP hydrolyzes insoluble $Fe^{2+}$-phytate or $Ca^{2+}$-phytate salts. The optimal temperature and pH for the hydrolysis of $Ca^{2+}$-phytate by PsBPP were $50^{\circ}C$ and 6.0, respectively. Biochemical and kinetic studies clearly showed that PsBPP efficiently hydrolyzed $Ca^{2+}$-phytate salts and yielded myo-inositol 2,4,6-trisphosphate and three phosphate groups as final products. Finally, we showed that PsBPP was highly effective for hydrolyzing rice bran with high phytate content. Taken together, our results suggest that PsBPP has great potential in the animal feed industry for reducing phytates.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1123-1128
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• 2005

NIB(methylisoborneol) is an earthy/musty odor compound produced as a second metabolite by cyanobacteria and actinomycetes. MIB is not removed by conventional water treatment(coagulation, sedimentation, filtration) and its presence in tap water, even at low ng/L levels, can result in consumer complaints. PAC(powdered activated carbon) can effectively remove MIB when the correct dose is applied. But, since most operators in water treatment plants apply a PAC dose and then adjust that dose depending on direct observation (odor detection) after treatment, the result is often under-dose or eve,-dose. In this study, kinetic and isotherm tests using $^{14}C$-radiolabeled MIB were performed to determine coefficients for the HSDM(homogeneous surface diffusion model), including liquid film mass transfer coefficient($K_f$) and surface diffusion coefficient ($D_s$). The HSDM gave a reasonable fit and allowed prediction with the experimental data. Base on the HSDM, the authors developed an optimum PAC dose prediction program using the Excel spreadsheet. When the developed program was applied at two water treatment plants, the PAC dose based on the experience of operators in the water treatment plant was significantly different from that recommended by the newly developed program. If operators are willing to use the optimum PAC dose prediction program, it should solve dosing problems.