• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.941-951
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• 2012

The changes of forest habitats and maeulsoops(village forests) in Jinan-gun, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea are examined using landscape indices and morphological pattern analysis, and their landscape-ecological implications on conserving biological diversity are presented. We used FRAGSTATS and GUIDOS software, as well as land cover maps(of 1989 and 2006) to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of habitat composition and configuration in surrounding landscapes of 34 representative maeulsoops and Jinan-gun. The results showed decreases in the amount of core habitats and corridors and habitat connectivity at a regional scale since 1989. In addition, multi-scale habitat analysis at a focal scale revealed that the structural and functional connectivity between forest habitats surrounding maeulsoops of the year 2006 was lower than that of the year 1989. In order to reduce forest fragmentation and to enhance the connectivity among habitats, it is necessary to provide the additional habitat corridors as well as preserving existing corridors and surrounding landscapes of maeulsoops. We also suggest that a combination of landscape indices and morphological spatial pattern analysis can provide an effective tool to assess the habitat functions and configuration in a rapidly changing landscape.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.109-117
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• 2008

Application of biomarkers for assessing marine environmental health risk is a relatively new field. According to the National Research Council and the World Health Organization, biomarkers can be divided into three classes: biomarkers of exposure, biomarkers of effect, and biomarkers of susceptibility. In order to assess exposure to or effect of the environmental pollutants on marine ecosystem, the following set of biomarkers can be examined: detoxification, oxidative stress, biotransformation products, stress responses, apoptosis, physiological metabolisms, neuromuscular responses, reproductions, steroid hormones, antioxidants, genetic modifications. Since early 1990s, several biomarker research groups have developed health indices of marine organisms to be used for assessing the state of the marine environment. Biomarker indices can be used to interpret data obtained from monitoring biological effects. In this review, we will summarize Health assessment Index, Biomarker Index, Bioeffect Assessment Index and Generalized Linear Model. Measurements of biomarker responses and development of biomarker index in marine organisms from contaminated sites offer great a lot of information, which can be used in environmental monitoring programs, designed for various aspects of ecosystem risk assessment.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.174-183
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• 2015

We have conducted a verification test of correlation between bird community indices and bird sound recording results in order to use the equipment which deals with the automatic sound collecting system, the song meter. The study areas include four sites which are Gombaeryoung and Zochimryoung in Jeombongsan Mountain and Jookryoung and Gochiryoung in Sobaeksan National Park. We collected the bird sound data five times using a sound recorder and field survey results in the same place of the study site. As a result of the sound recording from the field survey, the species recorded by three researchers of sound analyst include common resident species or species which have a relatively conspicuous call and song. On the contrary, the species recorded by only one researcher are a relatively rare or inconspicuous species or was familiar with the personal experiences of each researcher. The number of species recorded by only one researcher totaled fourteen species (36.8 %), and that of two researchers totaled twelve species (31.6 %), and that of three researchers totaled twelve species (31.6 %). The correlations of the number of species among three researchers was not significant in some results, but the sum or maximum count of the number of species was useful to estimate a significant correlation between the result of researchers and the indices of field surveys. As a result of correlation analysis by using sound recordings, the maximum number of species among the three researchers significantly correlated with the number of species, the species diversity index and the species abundance index in the field survey at the same site, however it did not correlate with the number of individuals and species evenness index. As a result of sound analysis collected from the stationary sound recording system; song meter, the number of frequencies in bird songs and calls correlated with the number of species in the field survey at the same site. The number of calls and songs decreased as time went by. Finally, we could test the active time range and change the activity strength by using a sound recording system. In particular, that sound recording system is able to collect data in same time and site, so it is expected so that the equipment not only replenish a shortage of researchers and survey periods in field research in a short term monitoring survey, but also be able to acquire statistical objectivity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.506-510
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• 2002

The effect of antioxidant activity of Platycodon grandiflorum (PG) on the liposomal phospholipid membrane was investigated by spectrophotometry. Membrane oxidation causes damage to the membrane fluidity and permeability. It brings further destruction to the sustenance of biological homeostasis. In addition, it is related to several diseases, aging and carcinogenesis. The sample PG was extracted and fractionated to five different types; butanol (PGMB), ethylacetate (PGMEA), ethylether (PGMEE), hexane (PGMH) and methanol (PGMM). The oxidation indices of PGMEA and PGMEE fractions in oxidized dilinoleoylphosphatidylcholine (DLPC) liposomes had stronger antioxidant activities than that of ${\alpha}$-tocopherol and were similar to antioxidant activities compared with butylated hydroxy toluene (BHT), a well-known potent antioxidant, in oxidized DLPC liposomes. The oxidation indices of PGMM extract, PGMB and PGMH fractions exhibited weak antioxidant activity compared with ${\alpha}$-tocopherol in oxidized DLPC liposomes. The oxidation indiex of PGMEE fractions added with vitamin C showed even strong antioxidant activity in the oxidized DLPC liposomes. The oxidation activity of BHT with vitamin C also proved to be stronger than BHT without vitamin C. Therefore vitamin C evidently helps to improve the effect of antioxidant in DLPC liposomes. These results indicate that potentially bioactive substances in PGMEE fraction has a function as potent antioxidant against phospholipid membrane oxidation.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.527-533
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• 2011

Decomposition of compost applied to soils is affected basically by its biological stability; but, many other chemical properties of the compost may also influence compost organic-C mineralization. This study was conducted to investigate the principal substrate quality factors of composts that determine C mineralization of compost with similar stability degree (SD). Three composts samples with similar SD but different chemical properties such as pH, C/N, $K_2SO_4$-extractable C, and molar ratio of $NH_4^+$ to $NO_3^-$ were mixed with an acid loamy soil and $CO_2$ emission was monitored during the laboratory incubation for 100 days. Temporal pattern of cumulative compost organic-C mineralization expressed as % of total organic C ($C_{%\;TOC}$) followed double exponential first order kinetics model and the $C_{%\;TOC}$ ranged from 4.8 to 11.8% at the end of incubation. The pattern of C%TOC among the composts was not coincident with the SD pattern (40.1 to 58.6%) of the composts; e.g. compost with the lowest SD resulted in the least $C_{%\;TOC}$ and vice versa. This result indicates that SD of compost can not serve as a concrete predictor of compost mineralization as SD is subject not only to maturity of compost but also to characteristics of co-composting materials such as rice hull (low SD) and sawdust (high SD). Meanwhile, such pattern of $C_{%\;TOC}$ collaborated with pH, C/N, $K_2SO_4$-extractable C, and molar ratio of $NH_4^+$ to $NO_3^-$ of the composts that are regarded as chemical indices of the progress of composting. Therefore, for better prediction of compost mineralization in soils, it is necessary to consider both SD and other chemical indices (pH, C/N, and molar ratio of $NH_4^+$ to $NO_3^-$).

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.108-119
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• 2021

We aimed to develop a naturalness index for forest-dwelling birds in four national parks in Korea and to simulate the effect of species loss on this naturalness index. Five bird specialists were asked to give 112 bird species a disturbance susceptibility score (DSS), and the naturalness index was calculated based on this. The 112 bird species represented 8 orders (Cuculiformes, Piciformes, Accipitriformes, Falconiformes, Columbiformes, Caprimulgiformes, Strigiformes, and Passeriformes). DSS was the highest for Terpsiphone atrocaudata and Pitta nympha, and lowest for Pica pica, Hypsipetes amaurotis, and Streptopelia orientalis. There was a significant negative relationship between a species' population number and its DSS. Among the four national parks, Mt. Songni had the highest naturalness index, followed by Mt. Wolak, Mt. Juwang, and Mt. Wolchul. We investigated the change in biodiversity indices under four scenarios, which assumed the extinction of species with less than 5 (Scenario 1), 10 (Scenario 2), 50 (Scenario 3), and 100 individuals (Scenario 4). The results showed that although all biodiversity indices decreased as the species loss increased, they all behaved differently. Fisher's alpha diversity decreased as the number of species proportionally decreased. There was almost no change in Shannon-Wiener H' index in Scenarios 1 and 2. The naturalness index showed increased sensitivity in Scenarios 1 and 4. Our future aims are to obtain the DSS for all forest-dwelling bird species, and to adopt the naturalness index to evaluate temporal and spatial changes in biodiversity.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.153-159
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• 1999

In an artificial pH-gradient batch culture system, the effects of acidification on the species composition of a heterotrophic bacterial community were analyzed. As a result of this study, it was found that total bacteria numbers were not affected by acidification and that the population of hetero-trophic bacteria decreased as pH became lower. The heterotrophic bacteria isolated from the entire pH gradient were 12 genera and 22 species. Among them, 64% were gram negative and 36% were gram positive bacteria. As pH decreased, the distribution rate of gram negative bacteria increased while that of gram positive bacteria decreased. The diversity of genera decreased from 13 to 5 as pH decreased from 7 to 3. The G+C content of all of the 202 isolated strains varied from 22.8 to 77.0%, and increased in interspecies of same genus as pH decreased. As a result of clustering analysis, the diversity index of species ranged from 1.13 to 2.37, and it had lower indices as pH decreased. In order to evaluate the diversity of numbers of sample of different size, a rarefaction method was used to analyze the expected number of species appearance according to pH. The statistical significance of species diversity was verified by the fact that the number decreased at lower pH.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.397-402
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• 2008

Over the past few years, anthocyanin has been demonstrated to exert potentially anti-oxidative and bioavailability effects including anti-cardiovascular disease and cancer-preventive effects in humans. This study was conducted to assess the toxicity of anthocyanin extracts from black soybean seed coats via oral administration in a mice feeding test. The final anthocyanin-containing products induced signs of toxicity on mortality in the 4-week feeding test. The incidence of clinical signs and changes in body and organ weight were also not observed in all anthocyanin-treated groups as compared with the control groups. In hematology analysis, RBC indices concluding MCV, MCH, and MCHC and WBC differential counting such a NEU, LYM, MONO, EOS, and BASO evidenced no significant differences between the anthocyanin treatment and control groups. The biochemical parameters in serum analysis - ALT, AST, BUN, Crea etc.- were also not significantly altered in those groups. Absolute and relative organ weights were not increased after 4 weeks of treatment with anthocyanin extracts in mice. In conclusion, anthocyanin extracts from the black soybean has biological activity without any toxic effects, which also suggests that the consumption of soy containing anthocyanin products may be a good source for health and medical supplies.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.517-523
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• 2013

Naphthyridine compounds are important, because they exhibit various biological activities including anticancer, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory activity. Some naphthyridines have antimitotic effects or demonstrate anticancer activity by inhibiting topoisomerase II. These compounds have been investigated as potential anticancer agents, and several compounds are now part of clinical trials. A series of naphthyridine derivatives were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activities against human cervical cancer (HeLa), leukemia (HL-60), and prostate cancer (PC-3) cell lines using an MTT assay. Some compounds (14, 15, and 16) were more potent than colchicine against all three human cancer cell lines and compound (16) demonstrated potency with $IC_{50}$ values of 0.7, 0.1, and $5.1{\mu}M$, respectively. Comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) were used for quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) molecular modeling of these compounds. We obtained accurate and predictive three-dimensional QSAR (3D-QSAR) models as indicated by the high PLS parameters of the HeLa ($q^2$, 0.857; $r^2$, 0.984; $r^2\;_{pred}$, 0.966), HL-60 ($q^2$, 0.777; $q^2$, 0.937; $r^2\;_{pred}$, 0.913), and PC-3 ($q^2$, 0.702; $q^2$, 0.983; $r^2\;_{pred}$, 0.974) cell lines. The 3D-QSAR contour maps suggested that the C-1 NH and C-4 carbonyl group of the naphthyridine ring and the C-2 naphthyl ring were important for cytotoxicity in all three human cancer cell lines.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.90 no.4
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• pp.488-494
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• 2001

This study was conducted to investigate forest ecosystem assessment which were widely used in Germany and Austria. The study area, Mt. Teawha, is located at Kwangju, Kyunggi-Do province. The methodology of this study considered the following factors. First forest types were classified accoding to species composition and age of tree layer. Naturalness, diversity and rerenees of each forest type were classified into 5 level. Finally, the forest types were assessed by synthesizing those 3 factors. Qurecus mongolica- and valley forest type over 300m was classified as naturalness 4 and Qurecus accustima, Quercus accusitima and Q. variabilis were as naturalness 3. The plantation types on the lower slope showed the level of naturlness 1 or 2. Diversity was similer to naturalness. But indices were different from each other. In the case of Larix leptolepsis plantations, naturalness indicated 1, while diversity showed 3. The valley forest type, wet forest and forest edge were classified into rare forest type. It was concluded that this method could be more efficient method comparing with existing method for assessment of naturality and thereby could contribute for biodiversity conservation in Korea.