• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.554-560
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• 2011

This study was performed to investigate the effects of microbial augmentation on the biological treatment of paper mill wastewater. Three bacteria (KN11, KN13, KN27) capable of degrading aromatic compounds and a bacterial strain (GT21) producing an extracellular cellulase were isolated from soil and wastewater by selective enrichment culture. Through morphological, physiological, and biochemical taxonomies, isolated strains of KN11, KN13, KN27, and GT21 were identified as Acinetobacter sp., Neisseria sp., Bacillus sp., and Pseudomonas sp. and named Acinetobacter sp. KN11, Neisseria sp. KN13, Bacillus sp. KN27, and Pseudomonas sp. GT21, respectively. For analysis of non-biodegradable and chemical oxygen demand (COD)-increasing matter in a paper mill wastewater, we utilized GC/MS to detect aromatic compounds and their derivatives containing several substituted functional groups. The microbial augmentation, J30 formulated with the mixture of bacteria including Acinetobacter sp. KN11, Neisseria sp. KN13, Bacillus sp. KN27, and Pseudomonas sp. GT21, was used for the treatment of paper mill wastewater. The optimum temperature and pH for COD removal of the microbial augmentation, J30, were $30^{\circ}C$ and 7.5, respectively. For evaluation of the industrial applicability of the microbial augmentation, J30 in the pilot test, treatment efficiency was examined using paper mill wastewater. The microbial augmentation, J30, showed a COD removal rate of 87%. On the basis of the above results, we designed the wastewater treatment process of the activated sludge system.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.1295-1303
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• 2013

According to facts revealed up until the present, there are a total of 68 known phyla on earth, including 55 phyla of bacteria and 13 phyla of archaea. The human large intestine has 9 phyla of microorganisms, which is a relatively lower diversity compared to the general environments of soil or sea. The diversity of intestinal microorganisms is affected by the characteristics of the host (genetic background, sex, age, immune system, and gut motility), the diet (non-digestible carbohydrates, fat, prebiotics, probiotics), and the intake of antibiotics, which in turn have an effect on energy storage processes, gene expressions, and even metabolic diseases like obesity. Probiotics are referred to as living microorganisms that improve the intestinal microbiota and contribute to the health of the host; in addition, probiotics usually comprise lactic acid bacteria. Recently, bacteriotherapy using probiotics has been utilized to treat sicknesses like diarrhea and irritable bowel syndrome. Prebiotics are a food ingredient which can selectively adjust intestinal microorganisms and which comprise inulin, fructooligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides, and lactulose. In recent days, attention has been paid to the use of dietary cellulose in the large intestine and the production of short chain fatty acids (short-chain fatty acids) in relation to obesity and anticancer. More research into microorganisms in the large intestine is necessary to identify specific microorganism species, which are adjusted by diverse non-digestible carbohydrates, prebiotics, and probiotics in the large intestine and to understand the connection between sicknesses and metabolites like short chain fatty acids produced by these microorganism species.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.213-220
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• 2014

Recently, river maintenance is change due to concern for the environment increases. Thus, the river restoration and river environment is best part of river maintenance. In case of Korea, existing river is improvement straightly for flood control and transportation. When the stream channel is straightly, maintain stability is important. Thus, construction of levees along the river. The various river structures for the purpose of flood control and transportation are inhibit factors of longitudinal and lateral connectivity. Connectivity is defined as the maintenance of lateral, longitudinal, and vertical pathways for biological, hydrological, and physical processes. Long-term point of view, increased connectivity is very important for a healthy ecosystem composition. As the first step of river restoration, this study described theory and concept of river continuum and the numerical model was applied to a real topography to simulate the flow analysis with or without segregated and blocked space in the Mankyung river. The results of this study can be utilized to develop the watershed connectivity assessments methods in order to the river restoration.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2004

Recently, many people want to know their state of health, such as a body fat rate, anywhere and anytime. The Personal Digital Assistance(PDA) is the portable wireless apparatus that has become widely popular. There are many application areas of the IDA to be in mobile care devices. In this study, we developed the PDA based body fat measurement system, composed of a cradle type measurement module and a WindowCE operated software module, a regression equation for predicting lean body mass (LBM). Sixty-three weight-stable subjects (53 men, 10 women) aged 20∼32yr participated in this study. A regression model, LBM ＝ (0.0005＊Height2 - 0.0160＊Impedance ＋ 0.3920＊Weight - 0.0684＊Age - 5.8141＊Sex ＋ 25.984, was found. The correlation coefficient( r) of body fat rate between developed system and HTM1000plus(BionetTM) was 0.928. HTM1000plus is a commercially available and approved by KFDA. These results indicated that developed system is reliable for estimation of body fat rate. Although developed system is the PDA based miniaturized, it shows good performance comparing with other commercial product.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.389-399
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• 2015

Zinc has been considered as a vital constituent of proteins, including enzymes. Mobile reactive zinc ($Zn^{2+}$) is the key form of zinc involved in signal transductions, which are mainly driven by its binding to proteins or the release of zinc from proteins, possibly via a redox switch. There has been growing evidence of zinc's critical role in cell signaling, due to its flexible coordination geometry and rapid shifts in protein conformation to perform biological reactions. The importance and complexity of $Zn^{2+}$ activity has been presumed to parallel the degree of calcium's participation in cellular processes. Whole body and cellular $Zn^{2+}$ levels are largely regulated by metallothioneins (MTs), $Zn^{2+}$ importers (ZIPs), and $Zn^{2+}$ transporters (ZnTs). Numerous proteins involved in signaling pathways, mitochondrial metabolism, and ion channels that play a pivotal role in controlling cardiac contractility are common targets of $Zn^{2+}$. However, these regulatory actions of $Zn^{2+}$ are not limited to the function of the heart, but also extend to numerous other organ systems, such as the central nervous system, immune system, cardiovascular tissue, and secretory glands, such as the pancreas, prostate, and mammary glands. In this review, the regulation of cellular $Zn^{2+}$ levels, $Zn^{2+}$-mediated signal transduction, impacts of $Zn^{2+}$ on ion channels and mitochondrial metabolism, and finally, the implications of $Zn^{2+}$ in health and disease development were outlined to help widen the current understanding of the versatile and complex roles of $Zn^{2+}$.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.218-229
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• 2011

Companding algorithms have been used to enhance speech recognition in noise for cochlea implant users. The efficiency of using companding for digital hearing aid users is not yet validated. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of the companding for digital hearing aid users in the various hearing loss cases. Using HeLPS, a hearing loss simulator, two different sensorinerual hearing loss conditions were simulated; mild gently sloping hearing loss(HL1) and moderate to steeply sloping hearing loss(HL2). In addition, a non-linear compression was simulated to compensate for hearing loss using national acoustic laboratories-non-linear version 1(NAL-NL1) in HeLPS. In companding, the following four different companding strategies were used changing Q values(q1, q2) of pre-filter(F filter) and post filter(G filter). Firstly, five IEEE sentences which were presented with speech-shaped noise at different SNRs(0, 5, 10, 15 dB) were processed by the companding. Secondly, the processed signals were applied to HeLPS. For comparison, signals which were not processed by companding were also applied to HeLPS. For the processed signals, log-likelihood ratio(LLR) and cepstral distance(CEP) were measured for evaluation of speech quality. Also, fourteen normal hearing listeners performed speech reception threshold(SRT) test for evaluation of speech intelligibility. As a result of this study, the processed signals with the companding and NAL-NL1 have performed better than that with only NAL-NL1 in the sensorineural hearing loss conditions. Moreover, the higher ratio of Q values showed better scores in LLR and CEP. In the SRT test, the processed signals with companding(SRT = -13.33 dB SPL) showed significantly better speech perception in noise than those processed using only NAL-NL1(SRT = -11.56 dB SPL).

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2013

Persons with sensorineural hearing impairment have troubles in hearing at noisy environments because of their deteriorated hearing levels and low-spectral resolution of the auditory system and therefore, they use hearing aids to compensate weakened hearing abilities. Various algorithms for hearing loss compensation and environmental noise reduction have been implemented in the hearing aid; however, the performance of these algorithms vary in accordance with external sound situations and therefore, it is important to tune the operation of the hearing aid appropriately in accordance with a wide variety of sound situations. In this study, a sound classification algorithm that can be applied to the hearing aid was suggested. The proposed algorithm can classify the different types of speech situations into four categories: 1) speech-only, 2) noise-only, 3) speech-in-noise, and 4) music-only. The proposed classification algorithm consists of two sub-parts: a feature extractor and a speech situation classifier. The former extracts seven characteristic features - short time energy and zero crossing rate in the time domain; spectral centroid, spectral flux and spectral roll-off in the frequency domain; mel frequency cepstral coefficients and power values of mel bands - from the recent input signals of two microphones, and the latter classifies the current speech situation. The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm could classify the kinds of speech situations with an accuracy of over 94.4%. Based on these results, we believe that the proposed algorithm can be applied to the hearing aid to improve speech intelligibility in noisy environments.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.571-576
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• 2018

Background: Korean Red Ginseng (KRG) has been used in Asia for its various biological effects, but no studies have investigated the safety of its long-term intake. Therefore, the present study evaluated the safety of KRG intake for 24 weeks. Methods: We randomized 1,000 participants in a 1:1 ratio into two groups, which were treated daily with 2 g of KRG or a placebo for 24 weeks. The primary endpoint was all adverse events and adverse drug reactions (ADRs) that occurred after KRG or placebo administration, which were reported at week 4, 12, and 24 after the baseline visit. Results: In total, 192 and 211 participants experienced adverse events in the KRG and placebo groups (39.2% and 42.0%, respectively; p = 0.361), and 59 and 57 KRG- and placebo-treated individuals reported ADRs (12.0% and 11.4%, respectively; p = 0.737). The frequently occurring ADRs were pruritus (2.0%), headache (1.6%), diarrhea (1.4%), and dizziness (1.2%) in the KRG group and pruritus (2.0%), headache (1.8%), dizziness (1.6%), rash (1.4%), and diarrhea (1.2%) in the placebo group. Discontinuation of drug administration due to ADRs was reported in 13 participants, six (1.2%) and seven (1.4%) in the KRG and placebo groups, respectively (p = 0.814). No significant abnormal changes were revealed by anthropometric, laboratory, and vital sign measurements in the KRG group compared with those in the placebo group. Conclusion: The present study confirms the safety and tolerability of daily intake of 2 g of KRG for 24 weeks by healthy adults.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.379-387
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between maternal age and infant mortality in Korea(n=617,867). Data of Korean vital statistics linked National Infant Mortality Survey conducted on births in 1999 were used in this study. The odds ratios (ORs) of infant death by maternal age were estimated with the multiple logistic regression model, adjusting for gender, plurality, birth order, low birth weight, and congenital malformation. After adjusting for the relevant variables, the odds of infant death in the group of maternal age with less than 20 years(Odds ratio [OR], 5.29, 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.51-7.98), 20-24 years(OR, 1.44, 95% CI, 1.23-1.69), 35-39 years(OR, 1.28, 95% CI, 1.11-1.46), and more than 40 years(OR, 1.94, 95% CI, 1.53-2.45) was higher than that of reference group(25-29 years). In conclusion, the higher infant mortality in the group of maternal age with less than 25 years and more than 35 years in Korea appears to be due to higher proportion of low birth weight and pre-term birth. Prenatal care intervention programs which tackle biological factors for advanced maternal age and address socio-economic problems and social stigma for early maternal age should be devised.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.116-122
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• 2011

The mushroom Agrocybe aegerita was analyzed to evaluate the nutritional value of this potential food and to enhance the cultivation and consumption. Among the nutritional compositions of Agrocybe aegerita, contents of crude proteins, crude fats and ashes were 38.3%, 3.0% and 8.2% respectively. The contents of potassium and phosphorus were higher than that of other minerals. Total phenolics contents were $65.2{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ and $46.0{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ in water extract and ethanol extract, respectively. Total flavonoids were estimated as $12.5{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ contents of water extract and ethanol extract were $7.1{\mu}g/m{\ell}$. Free radical scavenging activity against DPPH of ethanol extract, 79.2% was higher than that of water extract(58.2%). The contents of total phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant activity by the DPPH scavenging activity of Agrocybe aegerita were higher than those of Pleurotus eryngii and Pleurotus ostreatus. The tyrosinase inhibitory activity showed 63.2% and 65.0% in water extract and ethanol extract, respectively. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitory activity of water extract was 78.7% and 75.0% in ethanol extract. In this study, Agrocybe aegerita has abundant essential nutrients and thus is good source of functional health food.