• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.44 no.3 s.140
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• pp.189-197
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• 2005

Cellulose-digesting bacteria were isolated from hindgut of Allomyrina dichotoma (Coleoptera: Dynastidae). The bacterial isolates were identified as Yersinia sp. and Bacillus sp. The addition of the identified bacteria to diet increased growth rate of the cetoniid beetle, Protaetia brevitarsis senlensis (Coleoptera: Cetoniidae), probably by digesting cellulose nutrient contained in the oak tree sawdust diet. An additive of wheat flour at more than 10% to the sawdust diet significantly enhanced growth of P. brevitarsis senlensis. Trimmed branches of apple trees have been disposed in the apple farms and could be used for a diet component of the cetoniid beetle when the cellulose-digesting bacteria were mixed with the derived-sawdust. Resulting manure from mass rearing of P. brevitarsis senlensis contained high organic matters and trace amounts of toxic metals. When the manure were splayed on soil, it was effective as a natural compost and significantly stimulated lettuce growth. This research suggests a model technology to use cellulose-digesting bacteria to use for culturing grub, which results in natural recycles of trimmed branches in apple farms as grub diet, and to use grub manure as a natural compost.

• Journal of Korea Soil Environment Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 1998

This study investigates the contamination mechanism of soil by drainages including acid rains around mining waste sites, and suggests the quantitative methods of prevention against soil contaminations and its alternatives. For these purposes, the dissolution of arsenic in soils, which is one of toxic heavy metals, has been examined experimentally using the artificial acidic solution. Also, in order to prevent dissolution of arsenic by acid rain, the effects of limestone for the neutrality method on the soil were investigated. The arsenic in soil specimen was dissolved by strong acidic solution below pH1.0. The maximum amount of dissolved arsenic increased with decreasing pH value. Furthermore, it was found very effective to use limestones for the neutrality method. The neutralization of limestones in acidic solution was found to follow the equation of chemical reaction-controlling formulation in unreacted-core models.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2019

In order to examine the functionality of broccoli sprout (Brassica oleracea, BS), solvent extracts were prepared and their anti-oxidative and immunomodulating activities were compared with those of broccoli (B). EtOH extracts (E) were potently higher than hot-water extracts (HW) in the antioxidant contents and radical scavenging activity. In particular, the total polyphenolic contents in addition to ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging activity were significantly higher in EtOH extract of broccoli sprout (BS-E; 9.15 mg GAE/g, 4.52 mg AEAC/g, and 1.14 mg AEAC/g) compared with that of broccoli (B-E; 7.83 mg GAE/g, 3.63 mg AEAC/g, and 0.97 mg/AEAC/g). Whereas, total flavonoid content was significantly higher in B-E (1.60 mg QE/g) than BS-E (1.43 mg QE/g). Anti-inflammatory activity was investigated using LPS-induced cell line model at a concentration of $10{\sim}100{\mu}g/mL$, in which all solvent extracts of both broccoli sprouts and broccoli were not toxic to RAW 264.7 cell lines. In anti-inflammatory activity of broccoli sprouts, EtOH extracts also showed significantly more potent activity than hot-water extracts in all sample concentrations tested. In addition, BS-E ($100{\mu}g/mL$) inhibited nitric oxide (NO) and IL-6 production to 60.9% and 68.9% compared with the LPS inflammation group (without extracts), whereas B-E inhibited 49.6% and 54.9%. On the other hand, in immunostimulating activity by splenocytes and macrophages, hot-water extract showed significantly higher activity than EtOH extract. Especially, BS-HW stimulated the splenocyte proliferation (1.2-fold against saline group) and IFN-${\gamma}$ production (264.39 pg/mL) at $100{\mu}g/mL$, and the production of IL-6 (1.33-fold), IL-12 (1.09-fold) and TNF-${\alpha}$ (1.49-fold) from macrophages was also significantly enhanced over broccoli. In conclusion, broccoli sprouts showed more potent anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory and immunostimulating activity than broccoli, suggesting the possibility of using broccoli sprouts as functional food materials.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.45-63
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• 2019

In view of the growing industrial use of Bacterial cellulose (BC), and taking into account that it might become airborne and be inhaled after industrial processing, assessing its potential pulmonary toxic effects assumes high relevance. In this work, the murine model was used to assess the effects of exposure to respirable BC nanofibrils (nBC), obtained by disintegration of BC produced by Komagataeibacter hansenii. Murine bone marrow-derived macrophages ($BMM{\Phi}$) were treated with different doses of nBC (0.02 and 0.2 mg/mL, respectively 1 and $10{\mu}g$ of fibrils) in absence or presence of 0.2% Carboxymethyl Cellulose (nBCMC). Furthermore, mice were instilled intratracheally with nBC or nBCMC at different concentrations and at different time-points and analyzed up to 6 months after treatments. Microcrystaline $Avicel-plus^{(R)}$ CM 2159, a plant-derived cellulose, was used for comparison. Markers of cellular damage (lactate dehydrogenase release and total protein) and oxidative stress (hydrogen peroxidase, reduced glutathione, lipid peroxidation and glutathione peroxidase activity) as well presence of inflammatory cells were evaluated in brochoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids. Histological analysis of lungs, heart and liver tissues was also performed. BAL analysis showed that exposure to nBCMC or CMC did not induce major alterations in the assessed markers of cell damage, oxidative stress or inflammatory cell numbers in BAL fluid over time, even following cumulative treatments. $Avicel-plus^{(R)}$ CM 2159 significantly increased LDH release, detected 3 months after 4 weekly administrations. However, histological results revealed a chronic inflammatory response and tissue alterations, being hypertrophy of pulmonary arteries (observed 3 months after nBCMC treatment) of particular concern. These histological alterations remained after 6 months in animals treated with nBC, possibly due to foreign body reaction and the organism's inability to remove the fibers. Overall, despite being a safe and biocompatible biomaterial, BC-derived nanofibrils inhalation may lead to lung pathology and pose significant health risks.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.614-620
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine the growth plate, femoral bone length, bone mineral density, and blood composition in various experimental animals fed with oriental medicinal herbs containing growth factors. First, the lengths of the bone growth plates of the positive control (PC) group (fed with Astragalus membranaceus) and the Gh-199 and Sh-188 groups were increased when compared to group N. The Gh-199 group showed a greater increase in bone growth when compared with the PC group. In terms of the femoral bone length and bone mineral density, the effect of both Gh-199 and Sh-188 powders were as good as those of the PC group, and the Gh-199 powder showed a positive effect. Conversely, in the PC group, unlike the Gh-199 and Sh-188 groups, the aspartate aminotransferase(AST) and alanine aminotransferase(ALT) activities in the blood were increased, indicating that A. membranaceus is toxic to the body. Both the PC and Sh-188 groups also showed higher insulin-like growth factor-1(IGF-1) activity when compared with the Gh-199 group. Overall, the bone growth plate, femoral bone length, and bone mineral density measurements, and the blood analysis showed positive results in the group treated with Gh-199, and no specific toxicity of the herbal medicine in the body was evident.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.1112-1121
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• 2019

Objective: Gram-negative bacteria lipopolysaccharide (LPS) has been reported to be associated with uterine impairment, embryonic resorption, ovarian dysfunction, and follicle retardation. Here, we aimed to investigate the toxic effects of LPS on the maturation ability and parthenogenetic developmental competence of bovine oocytes. Methods: First, we developed an in vitro model to study the response of bovine cumulusoocyte complexes (COCs) to LPS stress. After incubating germinal vesicle COCs in $10{\mu}g/mL$ of LPS, we analyzed the following three aspects: the expression levels of the LPS receptor toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in COCs, activities of intracellular signaling protein p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-${\kappa}B$); and the concentrations of interleukin (IL)-$1{\beta}$, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-${\alpha}$, and IL-6. Furthermore, we determined the effects of LPS on the maturation ability and parthenogenetic developmental competence of bovine oocytes. Results: The results revealed that LPS treatment significantly elevated TLR4 mRNA and protein expression levels in COCs. Exposure of COCs to LPS also resulted in a marked increase in activity of the intracellular signaling protein p-p38 MAPK and NF-${\kappa}B$. Furthermore, oocytes cultured in maturation medium containing LPS had significantly higher concentrations of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-$1{\beta}$, TNF-${\alpha}$, and IL-6. LPS exposure significantly decreased the first polar body extrusion rate. The cytoplasmic maturation, characterized by polar body extrusion and distribution of peripheral cortical granules, was significantly impaired in LPS-treated oocytes. Moreover, LPS exposure significantly increased intracellular reactive oxygen species levels and the relative mRNA abundance of the antioxidants thioredoxin (Trx), Trx2, and peroxiredoxin 1 in oocytes. Moreover, the early apoptotic rate and the release of cytochrome C were significantly increased in response to LPS. The cleavage, morula, and blastocyst formation rates were significantly lower in parthenogenetically activated oocytes exposed to LPS, while the incidence of apoptotic nuclei in blastocysts was significantly increased. Conclusion: Together, these results provide an underlying mechanism by which LPS impairs maturation potential in bovine oocytes.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.20-28
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• 2021

Perfluorinated compounds(PFCs), an emerging environmental pollutant, are environmentally persistent and bioaccumulative organic compounds that possess a toxic impact on human health and ecosystems. PFCs are distributed widely in environment media including groundwater, surface water, soil and sediment. PFCs in contaminated solid can potentially leach into groundwater. Therefore, understanding PFCs partitioning between the aqueous phase and solid phase is important for the determination of their fate and transport in the environment. In this study, the sorption equilibrium batch and kinetic experiment of PFCs were carried out to estimated the sorption coefficient(K_d) and the fraction between aqueous-solid phase partition, respectively. Sorption branches of the PFDA(Perfluoro-n-decanoic acid), PFNA(Perfluoro-n-nonanoic acid), PFOA(Perfluoro-n-octanoic acid), PFOS(Perfluoro-1-octane sulfonic acid) and PFHxS(Perfluoro-1-hexane sulfonic acid) isotherms were nearly linear, and the estimated K_d was as follow: PFDA(1.50) > PFOS(1.49) > PFNA(0.81) > PFHxS(0.45) > PFOA(0.39). The sorption kinetics of PFDA, PFNA, PFOA, PFOS and PFHxS onto soil were described by a biexponential adsorption model, suggesting that a fast transport into the surface layer of soil, followed by two-step diffusion transport into the internal water and/or organic matter of soil. Shorter times(<20hr) were required to achieve equilibrium and fraction for adsorption on solid(F₁, F₂) increased with perfluorinated carbon chain length and sulfonate compounds in this study. Overall, our results suggested that not only the perfluorocarbon chain length, but also the terminal functional groups are important contributors to electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions between PFCs and soils, and organic matter in soils significantly affects adsorption maximum capacity than kinetic rate.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.273-282
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• 2023

Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) has been widely used to evaluate the seismic risk of nuclear power plants (NPPs). However, studies on seismic PSA for process plants, such as gas plants, oil refineries, and chemical plants, have been scarce. This is because the major disasters to which these process plants are vulnerable include explosions, fires, and release (or dispersion) of toxic chemicals. However, seismic PSA is essential for the plants located in regions with significant earthquake risks. Seismic PSA entails probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA), event tree analysis (ETA), fault tree analysis (FTA), and fragility analysis for the structures and essential equipment items. Among those analyses, ETA can depict the accident sequence for core damage, which is the worst disaster and top event concerning NPPs. However, there is no general top event with regard to process plants. Therefore, PSA cannot be directly applied to process plants. Moreover, there is a paucity of studies on developing fragility curves for various equipment. This paper introduces PSA for gas plants based on FTA, which is then transformed into Bayesian network, that is, a probabilistic graph model that can aid risk-informed decision-making. Finally, the proposed method is applied to a gas plant, and several decision-making cases are demonstrated.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.99-110
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• 2009

Objectives : The current treatment regimens for patients with nephrotic syndrome due to membranous nephropathy(MN) are based on steroids or immunosuppressive therapy with the aim of reducing proteinuria and improving outcome. Although these treatments attenuate the deterioration of renal function in MN patients, it has been suggested that all are burdened by significant toxicity. Therefore, more specific and less toxic therapies are needed. This study was to evaluate the effects of Coptidis Rhizoma Extract(CRE) on the MN induced by cBSA in mice. Methods : Mice were divided into 4 groups. One group named for 'Normal' was injected with a saline solution not to be immunized. The rest groups were treated as follows; After mice were immunized with 0.2 mg of cBSA and Freund's complete adjuvant one time every two weeks for 6 weeks, they received intra-peritoneal injection of 10 mg/kg of cBSA daily for 4 weeks. Also, they were divided into 3 groups. The first named for 'Control' was not given CRE. The second for 'CRE-250' was given oral administration of 250 mg/kg of CRE daily for 4 weeks. The third for 'CRE-500' was given 500 mg/kg of CRE. All of mice were sacrificed 4 weeks after the first immunization. We measured a body weight and 24hrs proteinuria as well as serological analysis. The morphologic changes of renal glomeruli were also observed with a light microscope and an electron microscope. Results : The levels of 24 hrs proteinuria, triglyceride, IgG, IL-6 were significantly decreased in both CRE groups. And the level of IgM was significantly decreased in CRE-250 group. In histological findings of kidney tissue, thickening of GBM and deposition of electron-density were consideraly decreased in both CRE groups. Conclusions : The present study suggests that CRE is highly effective when treating mice with MN induced by cBSA. More clinical data and studies are to be done for efficient application.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.334-343
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• 2023

Background: South Korea's Act on Registration and Evaluation, etc. of Chemicals (known as K-REACH) was established to protect public health and the environment from hazardous chemicals. 4,4'-Methylenedianiline (MDA), which is used as a major intermediate in industrial polymer production and as a vulcanizing agent in South Korea, is classified as a toxic substance under the K-REACH act. Although MDA poses potential ecological risks due to industrial emissions and hazards to aquatic ecosystems, no ecological risk assessment has been conducted. Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the ecological risk of MDA by identifying the actual exposure status based on the K-REACH act. Methods: Various toxicity data were collected to establish predicted no effect concentrations (PNECs) for water, sediment, and soil. Using the SimpleBox Korea v2.0 model with domestic release statistical data and EU emission factors, predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) were derived for ten sites, each referring to an MDA-using company. Hazard quotient (HQ) was calculated by ratio of the PECs and PNECs to characterize the ecological risk posed by MDA. To validate the results of modeling-based assessment, concentration of MDA was measured using in-site freshwater samples (two to three samples per site). Results: PNECs for water, sediment, and soil were 0.000525 mg/L, 4.36 mg/kg dw, and 0.1 mg/kg dw, respectively. HQ for surface water and sediment at several company sites exceeded 1 due to modeling data showing markedly high PEC in each environmental compartment. However, in the results of validation using in-site surface water samples, MDA was not detected. Conclusions: Through an ecological risk assessment conducted in accordance with the K-REACH act, the risk level of MDA emitted into the environmental compartments in South Korea was found to be low.