• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.287-297
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• 2021

Cornus officinalis Siebold & Zucc. is traditionally used as an edible and medicinal plant in many countries in East Asia. Previous studies have shown the pharmacological potential of extracts and components of C. officinalis, but comparative analysis of the composition of the leaf, stem, and fruit extracts has been insufficient to date. In the present study, the content of active antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ingredients was verified in different C. officinalis parts (under-ripe sansuyu, ripe sansuyu, seed, leaf, stem, and dried sansuyu). One active component, morroniside, was high in fruit (under-ripe and ripe sansuyu), while loganin was high in fruit (under-ripe sansuyu) and cornin was high in seeds. Total polyphenol contents were highest in fruit (ripe sansuyu) and flavonoids were highest in leaves. DPPH radical scavenging activity was highest in leaves, followed by seeds and then ripe sansuyu extract. The anti-inflammatory efficacy of leaf extracts of C. officinalis (LCO) was further investigated by measuring their effects on levels of nitric oxide (NO) and the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Non-cytotoxic concentrations of LCO effectively decreased the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced expression of inducible NO synthase, resulting in decreased NO production. LCO also significantly suppressed LPS-induced production and expression of IL-1β and IL-6. Taken together, the present findings suggest that C. officinalis leaves have potential as natural materials for the development of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.23-33
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• 2021

In Korea, many reservoirs have been built for the purpose of solving the food shortage problem and supplying agricultural water. However, the current 75.6% of the reservoirs are in serious aged as more than 50 years have passed since the year of construction. In the case of such an aging reservoir, the stability due to scour and erosion inside the reservoir is very reduced, and if concentrated rainfall due to recent abnormal weather occurs, the aging reservoir may collapse, leading to a lot of damage to property and human life. Accordingly, each agency that manages aging reservoirs uses Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) as an injection material and applies the grouting method. However, in the case of OPC, it may deteriorate over time and water leakage may occur again. And there are environmental problems such as consumption of natural resources and generation of greenhouse gases. So, there is a need to develop new materials and methods that can replace the OPC. In this study, an laboratory test and analysis were performed on the grout material developed to induce a curing reaction similar to that of OPC by recycling power plant byproduct. In addition, test in the field such as electric resistivity survey, Standard Penetration Test (SPT), and field permeability test were performed to analyzed to reinforcement effect and determine the possibility of using instead of OPC. As a results of the test, in the case of recycled power plant byproduct, the compressive strength was 2.9 to 3.2 times and the deformation modulus was 2.3 to 3.3 times higher, indicating that it is excellent in strength and can be used instead of OPC. And it was analyzed that the N value of the reservoir was increased by 1~2, and the coefficient of permeability (k) decreased to the level of 8.9~42.5%. showing sufficient reinforcing effect in terms of order.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.111-119
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• 2021

A bacterial strain isolated from a Malva verticillata leaf was identified as Bacillus velezensis MV2 based on the 16S rRNA sequencing results. Complete genome sequencing revealed that B. velezensis MV2 possessed a single 4,191,702-bp contig with 45.57% GC content. Generally, Bacillus spp. are known to produce diverse antimicrobial compounds including bacteriocins, polyketides, and non-ribosomal peptides. Antimicrobial compounds in the B. velezensis MV2 were extracted from culture supernatants using hydrophobic interaction chromatography. The crude extracts showed antimicrobial activity against both gram-positive bacteria and gram-negative bacteria; however, they were more effective against gram-positive bacteria. The extracts also showed antifungal activity against phytopathogenic fungi such as Fusarium fujikuroi and F. graminearum. In time-kill assays, these antimicrobial compounds showed bactericidal activity against Bacillus cereus, used as indicator strain. To predict the type of antimicrobial compounds produced by this strain, we used the antiSMASH algorithm. Forty-seven secondary metabolites were predicted to be synthesized in MV2, and among them, fourteen were identified with a similarity of 80% or more with those previously identified. Based on the antimicrobial properties, the antimicrobial compounds may be nonribosomal peptides or polyketides. These compounds possess the potential to be used as biopesticides in the food and agricultural industry as an alternative to antibiotics.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.67 no.4
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• pp.265-273
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• 2022

Waxy corn (Zea mays L.), which contains homozygous mutant alleles for the waxy1 (wx1) gene, is widely consumed as a snack food in Asia. This study evaluated sixteen agronomic characteristics of inbred Korean waxy corn lines to aid development of high-quality waxy corn cultivars. The plant materials studied were 177 inbred waxy corn lines developed by the National Institute of Crop Science, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea. For the tested lines, days to tasseling and silking averaged 77.69±2.22 days (with a range of 56-97 days), and 81.12±7.56 days (66-99 days), respectively. Plant length ranged from 88 to 237 cm (averaged 164.88±22.67 cm), ear length averaged 11.75±2.52 cm (5.0-18.5 cm), and ear width averaged 2.94±0.68 cm (1.4-4.5 cm). The number of rows on each ear of corn averaged 12.22±2.22 (7-32 rows) and the kernel number averaged 24.30±4.22 (9-37 kernels) per row. The crude protein content was 12.05±1.53% (8.90-21.80%) and total starch content was 69.27±5.74% (49.5-83.9%). Principal component analysis revealed that ear width, grain length, ear length, days to tasseling, days to silking, percentage of ear setting height, and total starch are features that allow distinction between the 177 waxy inbred corn lines. Hierarchical cluster analysis identified twelve waxy inbred lines that produce tall plants and have a short silking period. These lines may improve yield among quickly growing corn varieties.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.163-174
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• 2018

Rice cultivation is immensely affected by many climatic factors including temperature, precipitation, etc, and imbalanced climatic conditions negatively affect the growth of rice. In this study, we investigated the effects of different agroclimatic zones of Chungnam Province on rice quality and examined the correlations between climatic characteristics and rice yield components. Average temperatures and rainfall were higher in 'Western Sobaek Inland' than those in the 'South Western coastal zone, and precipitation records showed a wide variation among counties due to typhoons during the examined periods. The average accumulative temperature affecting the magnitude of production during reproductive growth periods was higher in "Cheon-An", "Gong-Ju", "Yeon-Gi (Se-Jong)", "Bo-Ryeong", and "Dang-Jin" counties than those in other counties. The plant height was higher in 'Western Sobaek Inland' counties such as "Yeon-Gi(Se-Jong)" and "Cheon-An", and 'Southern Charyeong Plain' counties such as "Cheong-Yang", "Dang-Jin", and "A-San", than those in other counties. The number of tillers during the 40 days after rice transplantation in "Seo-Cheon" and "Bo-Ryeong" counties increased compared to other counties. This result was relevant to the fact that the date of rice transplantation in those counties was 3 to 4 days later than those in other counties of Chung-Nam Province. The average yield (milled rice basis) was the highest in 'Western Sobaek Inland' zone, showing 3,756 kg ha^-1, followed by 'Southern Charyeong Plain' zone showing 3,621kg ha^-1, and was the lowest in 'South Western coastal zone by 3,315kg ha^-1. "Yeon-Gi(Se-Jong)" and "Dang-Jin" counties showed the highest yields of 4,100kg ha^-1. "Seo-San", "Seo-Cheon", and "Tae-An" counties were relatively lower yields of 3,240~3,280kg ha^-1 in comparison of other counties.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.521-535
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• 2023

When converting rice fields into fields,sorghum (sorghum bicolor L. Moench) has excellent moisture resistance, enabling stable production along with soybeans. Therefore, it is a crop that is expected to improve the self-sufficiency rate of domestic food crops and solve the rice supply-demand imbalance problem. However, there is a lack of fundamental statistics,such as cultivation fields required for estimating yields, due to the traditional survey method, which takes a long time even with a large manpower. In this study, U-Net was applied to RGB images based on unmanned aerial vehicle to confirm the possibility of non-destructive segmentation of sorghum cultivation fields. RGB images were acquired on July 28, August 13, and August 25, 2022. On each image acquisition date, datasets were divided into 6,000 training datasets and 1,000 validation datasets with a size of 512 × 512 images. Classification models were developed based on three classes consisting of Sorghum fields(sorghum), rice and soybean fields(others), and non-agricultural fields(background), and two classes consisting of sorghum and non-sorghum (others+background). The classification accuracy of sorghum cultivation fields was higher than 0.91 in the three class-based models at all acquisition dates, but learning confusion occurred in the other classes in the August dataset. In contrast, the two-class-based model showed an accuracy of 0.95 or better in all classes, with stable learning on the August dataset. As a result, two class-based models in August will be advantageous for calculating the cultivation fields of sorghum.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 1976

Introduction Recently, changes in the patterns and concepts of maternity care, in both developing and developed countries have been accelerating. An outstanding development in this field is the number of deliveries taking place in hospitals or maternity centers. In Korea, however, more than 90% of deliveries are carried out at home with the help of untrained relatives or even without helpers. It is estimated that less than 10% of deliveries are assisted by professional persons such as a physician or a midwife. Taking into account the shortage of professional person i11 rural Korea, it is difficult to expect widespread prenatal, postnatal, and delivery care by professional persons in the near future, It is unrealistic, therefore, to expect rapid development of MCH care by professional persons in rural Korea due to economic and sociological reasons. Given these conditions. it is reasonable that an educated village women could used as a "maternity aid", serving simple and technically easy roles in the MCH field, if we could give such a women incentive to do so. The midwife and physician are assigned difficult problems in the MCH field which could not be solved by the village worker. However, with the application of the village worker system, we could expect to improve maternal and child hoalth through the replacement of untrained relatives as birth attendants with educated and trained maternity aides. We hope that this system will be a way of improving MCH care, which is only one part of the general health services offered at the local health centre level. Problems of MCH in rural Korea The field of MCH is not only the weakest point in the medical field in our country hut it has also dropped behind other developing countries. Regarding the knowledge about pregnancy and delivery, a large proportion of our respondents reported having only a little knowledge, while 29% reported that they had "sufficient" knowledge. The average number of pregnancies among women residing in rural areas was 4.3 while the rate of women with 5 or more pregnancies among general women and women who terminated childbearing were 43 and 80% respectively. The rate of unwanted pregnancy among general women was 19.7%. The total rate for complications during pregnancy was 15.4%, toxemia being the major complication. The rate of pregnant women with chronic disease was 7%. Regarding the interval of pregnancy, the rates of pregnancy within 12 months and within 36 months after last delivery were 9 and 49% respectively. Induced abortion has been increasing in rural areas, being as high as 30-50% in some locations. The maternal death rate was shown 10 times higher than in developed countries (35/10,000 live births). Prenatal care Most women had no consultation with a physician during the prenatal period. Of those women who did have prenatal care, the majority (63%) received such care only 1 or 2 times throughout the entire period of pregnancy. Also, in 80% of these women the first visit Game after 4 months of gestation. Delivery conditions This field is lagging behind other public health problems in our country. Namely, more than 95% of the women deliveried their baby at home, and delivery attendance by a professional person occurred only 11% of the time. Attendance rate by laymen was 78% while those receiving no care at all was 16%. For instruments used to cut the umbilical corn, sterilized scissors were used by 19%, non-sterilized scissors by 63% and 16% used sickles. Regarding delivery sheets, the rate of use of clean sheets was only 10%, unclean sheets, vinyl and papers 72%, and without sheets, 18%. The main reason for not using a hospital as a place of delivery was that the women felt they did not need it as they had previously experience easy deliveries outside hospitals. Difficult delivery composed about 5% of the total. Child health The main food for infants (95%) was breast milk. Regarding weaning time, the rates within one year, up to one and half, two, three and more than three years were 28,43,60,81 and 91% respectively, and even after the next pregnancy still continued lactation. The vaccination of children is the only service for child health in rural Korea. As shown in the Table, the rates of all kinds of vaccination were very low and insufficient. Infant death rate was 42 per 1,000 live births. Most of the deaths were caused by preventable diseases. Death of infants within the neonatal period was 83% meaning that deaths from communicable diseases decreased remarkably after that time. Infant deaths which occurred without medical care was 52%. Methods of improvement in the MCH field 1. Through the activities of village health workers (VHW) to detect pregnant women by home visiting and. after registration. visiting once a month to observe any abnormalities in pregnant women. If they find warning signs of abnormalities. they refer them to the public health nurse or midwife. Sterilized delivery kits were distributed to the expected mother 2 weeks prior to expected date of delivery by the VHW. If a delivery was expected to be difficult, then the VHW took the mother to a physician or call a physician to help after birth, the VHW visits the mother and baby to confirm health and to recommend the baby be given proper vaccination. 2. Through the midwife or public health nurse (aid nurse) Examination of pregnant women who are referred by the VHW to confirm abnormalities and to treat them. If the midwife or aid nurse could not solve the problems, they refer the pregnant women to the OB-GY specialist. The midwife and PHN will attend in the cases of normal deliveries and they help in the birth. The PHN will conduct vaccination for all infants and children under 5, years old. 3. The Physician will help only in those cases referred to him by the PHN or VHW. However, the physician should examine all pregnant women at least three times during their pregnancy. First, the physician will identify the pregnancy and conduct general physical examination to confirm any chronic disease that might disturb the continuity of the pregnancy. Second, if the pregnant woman shows any abnormalities the physician must examine and treat. Third, at 9 or 10 months of gestation (after sitting of the baby) the physician should examine the position of the fetus and measure the pelvis to recommend institutional delivery of those who are expected to have a difficult delivery. And of course. the medical care of both the mother and the infants are responsible of the physician. Overall, large areas of the field of MCH would be served by the VHW, PHN, or midwife so the physician is needed only as a parttime worker.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.107-122
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• 2003

Objectives: The objective of this study is to investigate the use rate and some aspect of complementary therapies used by patients with chronic illness(hypertension, diabetic mellitus and chronic arthritis). Methods: 600 patients visiting the health center for one month(Jan. 2001) were interviewed on their complementary therapies used by the subjects for the previous year. Results: About fourteen-eight percent of the respondents used therapies; 35% of patients with hypertension, 44.6% of patients with diabetic mellitus and 62.9% of patients with chronic arthritis, which shows the highest rate among patients with three chronic disease. The use rate of complementary therapies indicates few meaningful differences according to the general characteristics of the interviewees. Hypertension patients used herb medication(31.0%) acupuncture(29.6%) and most of all the other therapies. Diabetic patients used dietary therapy(57.5%) and herb medication(35.1%). Chronic arthritis patients used acupuncture(85%) and herb medication(34.7%). 36.8% of all the patients who used complementary therapies tried more than two therapies. 18.3% of hypertension patients, 24.1% of diabetic patients and 55.9% of chronic arthritis patients used more than two therapies. Acupuncture(47%) was used most frequently, followed by herb medications(26.3%), health assistance utensils(21.8%). oriental therapy(21.8%), physical therapy(9.5%), health assistance food(8.4%), herb(7.7%), Korea hand acupuncture(3.2%), abdomen respiration(1.1%), and pore therapy(0.7%) Oriental clinic was visited most frequently(42.8%), which was used to cure diseases(61.8%), and to relieve symptoms(26.0%). (p<0.001) The cost spent on complementary therapies last year was 90,000 won(40.3%) and there are some cases of more than 500,000 won(31.2%). Most of the patients(56.1%) were satisfied with the complementary therapies, with 6% of them having side effects. 74% of the patients used complementary therapies answered that they would continue them and 56.1% of them also answered that they would continue them and 56.1% of them also answered that they would advise other patients to do them. Advantages(compared with those of orthodox medical treatment) are psychological comfort(28.1%), body protection(26.0%), effectiveness(20.0%). 34% of the patients using complementary therapies wanted to have informational orientation on complementary therapies. These findings reveal that a considerable number of patients with chronic illness(47.5%) tried a variety of complementary therapies. Though 6% of the patients using therapies had side effects, most of the subjects seemed satisfied with them and they are supposed to continue them. Conclusions: In conclusion, health center personnels and medical doctors should pay more attention to the complementary therapies used by patients with chronic illness. They also have to try their best to advise more scientific and informative complementary programs with less side effects and more help to improve their conditions.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.119-135
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• 2021

Korea has stepped up efforts to investigate and catalog its flora and fauna to conserve the biodiversity of the Korean Peninsula and secure biological resources since the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits (ABS) in 2010. Thus, after its establishment in 2007, the National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR) of the Ministry of Environment of Korea initiated a project called the Korean Indigenous Species Investigation Project to investigate indigenous species on the Korean Peninsula. For 15 years since its beginning in 2006, this project has been carried out in five phases, Phase 1 from 2006-2008, Phase 2 from 2009-2011, Phase 3 from 2012-2014, Phase 4 from 2015-2017, and Phase 5 from 2018-2020. Before this project, in 2006, the number of indigenous species surveyed was 29,916. The figure was cumulatively aggregated at the end of each phase as 33,253 species for Phase 1 (2008), 38,011 species for Phase 2 (2011), 42,756 species for Phase 3 (2014), 49,027 species for Phase 4 (2017), and 54,428 species for Phase 5(2020). The number of indigenous species surveyed grew rapidly, showing an approximately 1.8-fold increase as the project progressed. These statistics showed an annual average of 2,320 newly recorded species during the project period. Among the recorded species, a total of 5,242 new species were reported in scientific publications, a great scientific achievement. During this project period, newly recorded species on the Korean Peninsula were identified using the recent taxonomic classifications as follows: 4,440 insect species (including 988 new species), 4,333 invertebrate species except for insects (including 1,492 new species), 98 vertebrate species (fish) (including nine new species), 309 plant species (including 176 vascular plant species, 133 bryophyte species, and 39 new species), 1,916 algae species (including 178 new species), 1,716 fungi and lichen species(including 309 new species), and 4,812 prokaryotic species (including 2,226 new species). The number of collected biological specimens in each phase was aggregated as follows: 247,226 for Phase 1 (2008), 207,827 for Phase 2 (2011), 287,133 for Phase 3 (2014), 244,920 for Phase 4(2017), and 144,333 for Phase 5(2020). A total of 1,131,439 specimens were obtained with an annual average of 75,429. More specifically, 281,054 insect specimens, 194,667 invertebrate specimens (except for insects), 40,100 fish specimens, 378,251 plant specimens, 140,490 algae specimens, 61,695 fungi specimens, and 35,182 prokaryotic specimens were collected. The cumulative number of researchers, which were nearly all professional taxonomists and graduate students majoring in taxonomy across the country, involved in this project was around 5,000, with an annual average of 395. The number of researchers/assistant researchers or mainly graduate students participating in Phase 1 was 597/268; 522/191 in Phase 2; 939/292 in Phase 3; 575/852 in Phase 4; and 601/1,097 in Phase 5. During this project period, 3,488 papers were published in major scientific journals. Of these, 2,320 papers were published in domestic journals and 1,168 papers were published in Science Citation Index(SCI) journals. During the project period, a total of 83.3 billion won (annual average of 5.5 billion won) or approximately US $75 million (annual average of US $5 million) was invested in investigating indigenous species and collecting specimens. This project was a large-scale research study led by the Korean government. It is considered to be a successful example of Korea's compressed development as it attracted almost all of the taxonomists in Korea and made remarkable achievements with a massive budget in a short time. The results from this project led to the National List of Species of Korea, where all species were organized by taxonomic classification. Information regarding the National List of Species of Korea is available to experts, students, and the general public (https://species.nibr.go.kr/index.do). The information, including descriptions, DNA sequences, habitats, distributions, ecological aspects, images, and multimedia, has been digitized, making contributions to scientific advancement in research fields such as phylogenetics and evolution. The species information also serves as a basis for projects aimed at species distribution and biological monitoring such as climate-sensitive biological indicator species. Moreover, the species information helps bio-industries search for useful biological resources. The most meaningful achievement of this project can be in providing support for nurturing young taxonomists like graduate students. This project has continued for the past 15 years and is still ongoing. Efforts to address issues, including species misidentification and invalid synonyms, still have to be made to enhance taxonomic research. Research needs to be conducted to investigate another 50,000 species out of the estimated 100,000 indigenous species on the Korean Peninsula.