• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.spc1
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• pp.1015-1026
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• 2023

The confluence of rivers, where rivers meet, is a place known for complex water mixing dynamics. Sometimes, these rivers flow downstream without mixing. While this non-mixing can pose challenges for water quality management, it also offers the potential for improved water extraction in nearby water intakes (Chilseo). In this study, we analyzed the mixing dynamics at the confluence of the Nakdong River and the Nam River using drone imagery, water quality indicators like Electrical Conductivity, and hydraulic factor Secondary Flow. We found that meandering effects hindered mixing, as shown by the comparison of Secondary Flow and Electrical Conductivity distributions. Additionally, the Chilseo Water Purification Plant downstream of the Nakdong River-Nam River confluence extracted unmixed Nam River water during certain periods.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.1218-1225
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• 2009

Difractose anhydrides (DFAs) is studied as a sweetener for diabetics because of its structural property. DFAs have four types: DFA I, III, IV (degradation of levan) and V (degradation of inulin). Especially, DFA IV has been shown to enhance the absorption of calcium in experiments using rats. Levan fructotransferase is an enzyme for producing di-d-fructose-2,6':6,2-dianhydride (DFA IV). To identify structural characterization, we purified wild-type and mutants (D63A, D195N and N85S) of levan fructotransferase (LFTase) from Microbacterium sp. AL-210. These proteins were purified to apparent homogeneity by Ni-NTA affinity column, Q-sepharose ion exchange and gel filtration chromatography and detected by SDS-PAGE. They were also analyzed by circular dichroism (CD) measurements, JNET secondary structure prediction, activity measurements at various temperatures, and pH analysis. The optimum pH for the enzyme-catalyzed reaction was pH 7.5 and optimum temperature was observed at $55^{\circ}C$. Along with wild-type LFTase, mutants were analyzed by CD measurement, fluorescence analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). N85S showed less $\alpha$-helix and more $\beta$ strand than others. Also, N85S showed almost the same curve as wild-type in their steady-state fluorescence spectra, whereas mutant D63A and D195N showed higher intensity than wild-type. The amino acid sequence of wild-type LFTase was compared to the sequences of exo-inulinase from Aspergillus awamori, a plant fructan 1-exohydrolase from Cichorium intybus, and Thermotogo maritime (Tm) invertase and showed a high identity with Exo-inulinase from Aspergillus awamori.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2002

This study was performed to investigate the possibility of water purification by a wild train of Oenanthe javanica DC. Three commercially available dishwashing detergents and a standard surfactant, linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), were used for this study. The experiment was done in 1.5 ι transluscent aquariums. The plants were distributed into various concentrations of detergents and various kinds of detergent in the separate aquariums. The wet weight of the plants was significantly decreased (p<0.05), and the visual vitality of the plants also decreased in 2 days. The higher the concentration of detergent was, and the more time the plants were exposed to the detergents, the more decrease of growth was observed. The pH value of the culture media decreased in 2 days and in 4 days, then slightly increased in 6 days. However, the pH value of the media did not return to the initial neutral level of pH in 6 days. The pH value of the culture media containing the LAS remarkably increased in 6 days and increased to a neutral pH value in 18 days (p<0.01) as the pH of the other culture media. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the culture media gradually increased over the 4 days. A decrease of COD was observed in 6 days, but no tendency was observed between 12 and 18 days. The detergent in the culture media was highly significantly decreased in 2 days (p<0.01) and gradually decreased after this. After 6 days the remaining detergent was 12.4∼23.7% from the various levels of initially added concentration, and 22.4 ∼34.2% from the flour kinds of detergents. These results show that the reduction of detergent was caused by Oenanthe javanica and the effect was significant during the first 6 days when the plants were still growing well. These results indicate that the plant purifies contaminated water for several days and the effect could be variable according to the level of contamination and the environment in which the plant grows.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.40-44
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• 2003

Soil-borne infectious disease including Pythium aphanidermatum and Rhizoctonia solani causes severe damage to plants, such as cucumber. This soil-borne infectious disease was not controlled effectively by chemical pesticide. Since these diseases spread through the soil, chemical agents are usually ineffective. Instead, biological control, including antagonistic microbe can be used as a preferred control method. An efficient method was developed to select an antagonistic strain to be used as a biological control agent strain. In this new method, surface tension reduction potential of an isolate was included in the ‘decision factor’ in addition to the other factors, such as growth rate, and pathogen inhibition rate. Considering these 3 decision factors by a statistical method, an isolate from soil was selected and was identified as Bacillus sp. GB16. In the pot test, this strain showed the best performance among the isolated strains. The lowest disease incidence rate and fastest seed growth was observed when Bacillus sp. GB16 was used. Therefore this strain was considered as plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). The action of surface tension reducing component was deduced as the enhancement of wetting, spreading, and residing of antagonistic strain in the rhizosphere. This result showed that new selection method was significantly effective in selecting the best antagonistic strain for biological control of soil-borne infectious plant pathogen. The antifungal substances against P. aphanidermatum and R. solani were partially purified from the culture filtrates of Bacillus sp. GB16. In this study, lipopeptide possessing antifungal activity was isolated from Bacillus sp. GB16 cultures by various purification procedures and was identified as a surfactin-like lipopeptide based on the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), high performance liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy (HPLC-MS), and quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) ESI-MS/MS data. The lipopeptide, named GB16-BS, completely inhibited the growth of Pythium aphanidermatum, Rhizoctonia solani, Penicillium sp., and Botrytis cineria at concentrations of 10 and 50 mg/L, respectively. A novel method to prevent the foaming and to provide oxygen was developed. During the production of surface active agent, such as lipopeptide (surfactin), large amount of foam was produced by aeration. This resulted in the carryover of cells to the outside of the fermentor, which leads to the significant loss of cells. Instead of using cell-toxic antifoaming agents, low amount of hydrogen peroxide was added. Catalase produced by cells converted hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water. Also addition of corn oil as an oxygen vector as well as antifoaming agent was attempted. In addition, Ca-stearate, a metal soap, was added to enhance the antifoam activity of com oil. These methods could prevent the foaming significantly and maintained high dissolved oxygen in spite of lower aeration and agitation. Using these methods, high cell density, could be achieved with increased lipopeptide productivity. In conclusion to produce an effective biological control agent for soil-borne infectious disease, following strategies were attempted i) effective screening of antagonist by including surface tension as an important decision factor ii) identification of antifungal compound produced from the isolated strain iii) novel oxygenation by $H_2O_2-catalase$ with vegetable oil for antifungal lipopeptide production.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.235-241
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• 2003

For the biological control of Phytophthora blight of red-pepper caused by Phytophthora capsici, an antibiotic-producing plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) Bacillus sp. KL 39 was selected from a local soil of Kyongbuk, Korea. The strain KL 39 was identified as Bacillus megaterium by various cultural, biochemical test and API and Microlog system. B. megaterium KL 39 could produce the highest antifungal antibiotic after 40 h of incubation under the optimal medium which was 0.4% fructose, 0.3% yeast extract, and 5 mM KCl at 30 C with initial pH 8.0. The antifungal antibiotic KL 39 was purified by Diaion HP-20 column, silica gel column, Sephadex LH-20 column, and HPLC. Its RF value was confirmed 0.32 by thin-layer chromatography with Ethanol:Ammonia:Water = 8:1:1. The crude antibiotic KL39 was active against a broad range of plant pathogenic fungi, Rhizoctonia solani, Pyricularia oryzae, Monilinia fructicola, Botrytis cinenea, Alteranria kikuchiana, Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium solani. The purified antifungal antibiotic KL39 had a powerful biocontrol activity against red-pepper phytophthora blight disease with in vivo pot test as well as the strain B. megaterium KL 39.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.29
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• pp.14.1-14.8
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• 2014

Objectives Some plants were placed in indoor locations frequented by asthmatics in order to evaluate the quality of indoor air and examine the health benefits to asthmatics. Methods The present study classified the participants into two groups: households of continuation and households of withdrawal by a quasi-experimental design. The households of continuation spent the two observation terms with indoor plants, whereas the households of withdrawal passed the former observation terms with indoor plants and went through the latter observation term without any indoor plants. Results The household of continuation showed a continual decrease in the indoor concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during the entire observation period, but the household of withdrawal performed an increase in the indoor concentrations of VOCs, except formaldehyde and toluene during the latter observation term after the decrease during the former observation term. Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) increased in the households of continuation with the value of 13.9 L/min in the morning and 20.6 L/min in the evening, but decreased in the households of withdrawal with the value of -24.7 L/min in the morning and -30.2 L/min in the evening in the first experimental season. All of the households exhibited a decrease in the value of PEFR in the second experimental season. Conclusions Limitations to the generalizability of findings regarding the presence of plants indoors can be seen as a more general expression of such a benefit of human-environment relations.

• Ecology and Resilient Infrastructure
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.54-63
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• 2015

This study was conducted to investigate the flora and vegetation structure at a 15-year-old artificial wetland for the water purification in Jincheon, Korea. The percentage of species number of obligate wetland plants and facultative wetland plants totaled 40%, whereas that of obligate upland plants and facultative upland plants was 57%. This result showed that the artificial wetland in the study experienced terrestrialization. The number of annual and biennial plants that are pioneer vegetation in a successional stage was lower than that of perennial herbs as a result of the long-term stabilization of vegetation. From the results of DCA (detrended correspondence analysis), water depth played an important role on the classification of vegetation structure in an old artificial wetland. Species diversity was higher in the terrestrialized plant communities such as Iris pseudacorus and Aster koraiensis than in any other wetland communities. Plant communities could be classified according to the wetland indices; obligate upland for A. koraiensis community, facultative wetlands for Carex dispalata var. dispalata and I. pseudacorus community, and obligate wetlands for Nymphoides peltata, Nymphaea tetragona, Phragmites communis, Potamogeton maackianus, and Typha angustifolia community. In conclusion, this result suggests that wetland vegetation should be maintained against terrestrialization through the proper management of sedimentation and hydrological regime in an artificial wetland.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1196-1201
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• 2016

The ovary parts of Nelumbo nucifera were extracted in 80% methanol (MeOH), and the concentrated extract was then partitioned using n-hexane, ethyl acetate (EtOAc), n-butanol (n-BuOH), and H₂O, successively. Using an octadecyl silica gel (ODS) column, silica gel (SiO₂) column chromatography, and a HPLC purification system, five compounds were isolated from the n-hexane fraction obtained from the extract of N. nucifera ovary. The chemical structures of the metabolites were determined using several spectroscopic methods, including NMR and GC/MS and MS of 1-eicosanol (1), cycloartenol (2), trans-squalene (3), pentadecanoic acid (4), and β-sitosterol (5). This study is a first attempt to isolate and identify secondary metabolites from the ovary of N. nucifera. The results indicated that the extract of N. nucifera ovary has biological effects, such as antibacterial and -tumor activity. Therefore, it could decrease the risk of HIV transmission through breastfeeding.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2018.04a
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• pp.67-67
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• 2018

Trichoderma species are a rich source of metabolites, but less known for biomedical potential. This work deals with antibacterial and antioxidant potentials of intracellular non-cytotoxic metabolites, extracted from Trichoderma atroviride (KNUP001). A total of 53 fractions was collected by column chromatography and tested for cytotoxicity by MTT assay. Only one fraction (F41) was found to be non-toxic to Vero cells with $95.4{\pm}0.61%$ of survival. The F41 was then subjected to chemical analysis, antibacterial and antioxidant assays. The F41 at $500{\mu}g.ml^{-1}$ showed the total antioxidant of $48.70{\pm}2.90%$, DPPH radical scavenging activity of $37.25{\pm}2.25$, nitric oxide (NO) radical scavenging activity of $54.55{\pm}1.95$ and $H_2O_2$ radical scavenging activity of $43.75{\pm}3.21$. The F41 at $25{\mu}g.ml^{-1}$ displayed antibacterial activity against E. coli ($14.25{\pm}0.2mm$), P. mirabilis ($10.4{\pm}0.6mm$), S. dysenteriae ($18.6{\pm}03mm$), S. paratyphi A ($14.1{\pm}1.1mm$), E. aerogenes ($5.6{\pm}0.4mm$) and S. marcescens ($14.25{\pm}0.2mm$). GC-MS analysis revealed the dominant presence of oleic acid C 18.1 (63.18%), n-hexadecanoic acid (6.17%), and ethyl oleate (4.93%) and potent molecules such as 8-[(2E)-2-(3-hydroxybenzylidene)hydrazinyl]-1,3,7-trimethyl-3,7-dihydro-1H-purine-2,6-dione, 2-(Dimethylamino)ethyl (1Z)-N-hydroxy-2-(4-morpholinyl)-2-oxoethanimidothioate, Fluorene in the F41, and virtual study revealed that these molecules are likely responsible for the antibacterial activities of F41. Hence, further investigation deserves on purification and characterization of the active metabolites from T. atroviride strain KNUP001 towards developing molecular leads to effective antibacterial drugs, and non-toxic to host cells.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.306-313
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• 1973

With the intention of obtaining technical data for the industrial production of ${\gamma}-MnO_2$ for dry cell depolarizer by electrolytic oxidation of acidic manganese sulfate solution made from domestic rhodochrosite, optimum conditions of ore leaching, purification of leached solution and electrolytic oxidation of divalent manganes to tetravalent were investigated using simulated micro pilot plant having a production capacity of 4 kg of $MnSO_4$ per day. The nature and quality of the products were investigated by means of chemical analysis, DTA, X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. The cell activity of $MnO_2$were examined by cell discharging character measurements. The optimum electrolysis conditions were as follow: Temperature of the electrolyte, above $90^{\circ}C$; current density, 0.7${\sim}A/dm^2$; anode materials, graphite or lead ; concentration of electrolyte, $MnSO_4 50{\sim}150g/l $ g/l and $H_2SO_4/MnSO_4 = 0.15{\sim}0.25$. Under the best condition the current efficiency was 99% and the products were almost pure ${\gamma}-MnO_2$. The cell discharging character were good and almost the same as that of regular grade commercial electrolytic manganese dioxide.