• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.310-317
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• 2022

BACKGROUND: The salt in soil interrupts crop growth. Therefore, water resources are used to remove any salt found in the soil. However, water resources have been reduced by global warming; thus, a new study is required into reducing the salt in soil. Recently, the bottom ash (BA) of a biomass power plant was found to be similar to biochar. Hence, it can be used to remove heavy metals and wastewater through the adsorption characteristics of BA. The objective of this study was to evaluate the improvement effects on crop growth in saline soil containing the BA from biomass power plants. METHODS AND RESULTS: The effect on crop growth in the saline soil supplemented with BA was studied with the crop-planted pots, which were packed by reclaimed greenhouse soils collected from Byolyang, Suncheon. The BA application level was 25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 kg/10a (referred as BA25, BA50, BA100, BA200, and BA400, respectively). The BA increased the fresh weights of the leaf and root, while nitrogen uptake increased by approximately 24-102% and 54-77%, respectively for the lead and root. The phosphorous uptake increased by 38%, although only in the leaf of the lettuce. In the case of soil, BA increased water content, pH, EC, CEC, and NH₄⁺ and the SAR of the soil decreased by 5-15%. The bottom ash increased the contents of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺, and fixed the amount of Na⁺. CONCLUSION(S): It was confirmed the bottom ash of a biomass power plant, based on wood pellets, improved crop growth, and increased the nutrient uptake of crops in saline soil. In addition, bottom ash, which has a wide range of porosity and high values of pH and EC, improved properties of the saline soil. However, the BA has a large amount of B, As, and heavy metals. Finally, it may require a study on the safety and contamination of heavy metals contained in the bottom ash, which would be applied in soil for a long time.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.79-83
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• 2006

Displayed result that handle particle contaminant and hydrospace organism included in number of ballast that is happened in ship using automatic bade washing filter. Reason that remove first contaminant that is included in number of ballast is that heighten processing effect of after processing process. of the filter. Another advantage is to drop off the solids with controlling revolution of drum screen in pretreatment filtration process. The fact that it is easy to attach and detach a several type of screen for getting the expected water quality is another advantage. Filter rotation speed at 1.0rpm is filter resistance 3.0bar and 3.0rpm is filter resistance 2.8bar. Filter out impurities from ballast water over 6.0rpm is filter resistance 26bar and 10rpm is filter resistance 2.5bar. Filtration system removal aquatic organism over $80{\mu}m$ in ballast water. This study shows that the filtration treatment system has a potential for the treatment of ballast water.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.1075-1086
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• 2008

In order to investigate the applicability and suitability of the industrial by-products to apply mono-layer cover system for non-sanitary landfill sites, 6 different industrial by-products, such as construction waste, bottom ash, gypsum, blast furnace and steel manufacture slags, and stone powder sludge, were evaluated. Various physicochemical and hydrodynamic properties of the industrial byproducts were investigated. The environmental safety was monitored using batch and long-term leaching tests as well. In addition, the flexibility of plants was observed by cultivating them in the industrial by-products. The results for physicochemical properties indicate that most of the materials considered appeared to be suitable for landfill cover. Particularly, the concentration levels of hazardous elements regulated by the Korean Law for Waste Management did not exceed the regulatory limits in all target materials. In addition, the concentrations of regulated elements for the Korean Soil Conservation Law were examined below the regulatory limits in most of materials considered, except for the stone powder sludge. The results of batch and long-term experiments showed bottom ash and construction waste were the most suitable materials for landfill cover among the industrial by-products considered. The results of plant studies indicate that the bottom ash among industrial by-products considered was most effective in developing vegetation on landfill site, showing fast germination and large growth index. At the final covering system made of mixture of soil and bottom ash, the optimum application rate of farmyard manure was observed to be 40-50 Mg/ha.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2599-2605
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• 2013

The study aimed to evaluate immune-stimulating effects of a well-known Thai folkloric remedy when used for adjuvant therapy with conventional chemotherapeutics for treatment of breast cancer. Immunostimulating influence of the remedy (215 mg/kg body weight per day) on NK cell activity and TNF-${\alpha}$ release from the monocytes/macrophages were investigated in a total of 15 healthy women and 13 female patients with breast cancer (Group 1). The effect of breast tumor surgery on NK cell activity was further investigated in 18 female patients with breast cancer (Group 2). NK cell cytotoxic activity was determined by chromium release cytotoxic assay using K562, an erythroleukemic cell line. TNF-${\alpha}$ release from monocytes/macrophages separated from blood samples was determined through a biological assay using actinomycin D-treated L929 mouse fibroblast cells in the presence and absence of LPS. Baseline NK cell activity of the monocytes/macrophages separated from Group 2 patients expressed as %cytotoxicity was significantly lower than in the healthy subjects at E:T ratios of 100:1 and 25:1. In healthy subjects, there was no change in NK cell cytotoxic activity (%cytotoxicity or LU) following 1 and 2 weeks of treatment with the remedy compared with the baseline at various E:T ratios but the binding activity (%binding) was significantly increased after 2 weeks of treatment. The addition of one or two conventional chemotherapeutic regimens did not significantly reduce the NK cytotoxic activity but did affect release of TNF-${\alpha}$ in both unstimulated and LPS-stimulated samples. Surgery produced a significant suppressive effect on NK cell activity. The use of the remedy as an adjunct therapy may improve therapeutic efficacy and safety profiles of conventional chemotherapeutic regimens through stimulation of the immune system in cancer patients.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.449-453
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• 2016

$HA(hydroxyapatite)/{\beta}-TCP$ (tricalcium phosphate) biomaterial (BCP; biphasic calcium phosphate) is widely used as bone cement or scaffolds material due to its superior biocompatibility. Furthermore, $NH_4HCO_3$ as a space holder (SH) has been used to evaluate feasibility assessment of porous structured BCP as bone scaffolds. In this study, using a spark plasma sintering (SPS) process at 393K and 1373K under 20MPa load, porous $HA/{\beta}-TCP$ biomaterials were successfully fabricated using $HA/{\beta}-TCP$ powders with 10~30 wt% SH, TiH2 as a foaming agent, and MgO powder as a binder. The effect of SH content on the pore size and distribution of the BCP biomaterial was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a microfocus X-ray computer tomography system (SMX-225CT). The microstructure observations revealed that the volume fraction of the pores increased with increasing SH content and that rough pores were successfully fabricated by adding SH. Accordingly, the cell viabilities of BCP biomaterials were improved with increasing SH content. And, good biological properties were shown after assessment using Hanks balanced salt solution (HBSS).

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.27 no.2 s.66
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• pp.253-261
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• 2006

Backgrounds : Hyperlipidemia is a major cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Lowering serum cholesterol levels could reduce the risk of CVD. Insamsansa-eum (Renshenshanzha-yin, ISE), composed of Ginseng Radix and Crataegii Fructus, is a new medicine developed to treat hyperlipidemia and CVD. Objectives : In this study, we intended to explore the clinical effects of ISE on patients with hypercholesterolemia, and moreover we also compared its effects according to the pattern identification. Methods : Subjects were administered ISE with the dose of 600 mg three times a day for 4 weeks. Patterns of subjects were identified with diagnostic scoring system for Yin-Yang and the condition of Excess-Deficiency before treatment. Serum lipids were measured at baseline and after 4 weeks of medication. Results : ISE lowered total cholesterol(TC), triglyceride(TG), total lipid(TL), phospholipid(PL) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL) significantly. Compared with the data of our previous study, it was less effective than Atorvastatin but showed equal lipids-lowering effect to Chunghyul-dan (Qingxue-dan, CHD). In Yang pattern group, ISE was less effective in lowering TG and LDL than it was in not-Yang-not-Yinpattern group. On safety assessment, there was no adverse effect, hepatic or renal toxicity. Conclusions : We suggest that ISE is a safe and useful herbal medicine for hypercholesterolemia, and moreover it could be more useful when it is used for patients with not Yang pattern.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2010

The evaluation of eye and skin irritation potential is essential to ensuring the safety of human in contact with a wide variety of substances. Despite this importance of irritation test, little is known with respect to the irritation potency of lomefloxacin, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic, which has been known to cause phototoxicity with an abnormal reaction of the skin. Thus, to investigate the tendency of lomefloxacin to cause eye and skin irritation, we carried out in vitro eye irritation test using Balb/c 3T3, and in vitro skin irritation test using $KeraSkin^{TM}$ human skin model system. 3T3 neutral red uptake assay has been proposed as a potential replacement alternative for the Draize Eye irritation test. In this study, the $IC_{50}$ value obtained for lomefloxacin was 375 ${\mu}g$. According to the classification model used for determining in vitro categories, lomefloxacin was classified as moderately irritant. For evaluation of skin irritation, engineered epidermal equivalents ($KeraSkin^{TM}$) were subjected to 10 and 25 mg of lomefloxacin for 15 minutes. Tissue damage was assessed by tissue viability evaluation, and by the release of a pro-inflammatory mediator, interleukin- 1${\alpha}$. Lomefloxacin increased the interleukin-1${\alpha}$ release after 15 minutes of exposure and 42 hours of post incubation, although no decrease in viability was observed. Therefore, lomefloxacin is considered to be moderately irritant to skin and eye.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.122-129
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• 2020

BACKGROUND: Dissipation patterns of insecticides (acequinocyl, clothianidin, diflubenzuron, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam) on strawberry grown in plastic-covered greenhouse were evaluated at 7 intervals including the preharvest interval after application. This study was performed to determine the residue concentrations, half-lives and dissipation rates in strawberry for the harvest periods. METHODS AND RESULTS: Acequinocyl, clothianidin, diflubenzuron, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam were applied in accordance with critical good agricultural practices for strawberry. Strawberry samples were collected at 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 days after application. Quantitaion was performed by HPLC/DAD and HPLC-MSMS system with C₁₈ column. The limit of quantitation (LOQ) values varied between were 0.00025~0.05 mg/kg on strawberry. The recoveries of acequinocyl, clothianidin, diflubenzuron, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam at two concentrations ranged from 70.9~104.9% on strawberry. The half-lives of pesticide dissipation on strawberry for two fields ranged from 1.3~8.2 days. The dissipation rates were evaluated according to the statistics method with a 95% confidence. CONCLUSION: The residue levels of insecticides (acequinocyl, clothianidin, diflubenzuron, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam) on strawberry at 0-day after application were below the specified values by Korean MRL. To estimate dissipation rate constant of pesticides on crop for harvest periods, it is important to set the pre-harvest residue limit for human health and consumer protection in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.183-192
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• 2018

Although hyaluronic acid (HA) has been developed as a nanoparticle (NP; 320-400 nm) for a drug delivery system, the tissue targeting efficacy and the pharmacokinetics of HA-NPs are not yet fully understood. After a dose of 5 mg/kg of cyanine 5.5-labeled HA-NPs or HA-polymers was intravenously administrated into mice, the fluorescence was measured from 0.5 h to 28 days. The HA-NPs fluorescence was generally stronger than that of HA-polymers, which was maintained at a high level over 7 days in vivo, after which it gradually decreased. Upon ex vivo imaging, liver, spleen, kidney, lung, testis and sublingual gland fluorescences were much higher than that of other organs. The fluorescence of HA-NPs in the liver, spleen and kidney was highest at 30 min, where it was generally maintained until 4 h, while it drastically decreased at 1 day. However, the fluorescence in the liver and spleen increased sharply at 7 days relative to 3 days, then decreased drastically at 14 days. Conversely, the fluorescence of HA-polymers in the lymph node was higher than that of HA-NPs. The results presented herein may have important clinical implications regarding the safety of as self-assembled HA-NPs, which can be widely used in biomedical applications.

• CELLMED
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.2.1-2.8
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• 2021

The clinical condition Amnesia causes difficulty in learning new information and the inability to recall past events. It is primarily concerned with recent memory loss. Majoon-e-Nisyan (MJN) is a polyherbal Unani formulation, present in a semi-solid form. It is widely used potent drug of the Unani System of Medicine (USM) for treating Nisyan (amnesia). In the present study polyherbal Unani formulation, MJN has been studied for its quality control and acute toxicity. Standardization (quality control) of drugs deals with drug identity, drug quality and purity determination. Standardization of MJN had been done as per the Unani pharmacopoeial parameters approved by World Health Organization (WHO) - Pharmacognostical parameters, Physico-chemical parameters, high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC), microbial load, aflatoxin, and heavy metals. Solvents and chemicals used in the study were of analytical grade and used instrument were calibrated. By conducting an acute oral toxicity study in rats, the safety of MJN was assessed. The limit test method of OECD guideline 425 was followed in the study. Results of standardization and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for preparation of MJN may serve as the standard reference in the future. The data generated in the study for the quality control of MJN proved the quality of formulation and shows that MJN is not toxic in rats following acute dosing up to 2000 mg/kg bw. The data obtained in the paper for MJN may be used as a standard guideline for preparation of the formulation which can save time, cost, and resources for future research endeavours.