• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.1262-1271
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• 2021

L-Malic acid (L-MA) is widely used in food and non-food products. However, few microorganisms have been able to efficiently produce L-MA from xylose derived from lignocellulosic biomass (LB). The objective of this work is to convert LB into L-MA with the concept of a bioeconomy and environmentally friendly process. The unique trifunctional xylanolytic enzyme, PcAxy43A from Paenibacillus curdlanolyticus B-6, effectively hydrolyzed xylan in untreated LB, especially corn hull to xylose, in one step. Furthermore, the newly isolated, Acetobacter tropicalis strain H1 was able to convert high concentrations of xylose derived from corn hull into L-MA as the main product, which can be easily purified. The strain H1 successfully produced a high L-MA titer of 77.09 g/l, with a yield of 0.77 g/g and a productivity of 0.64 g/l/h from the xylose derived from corn hull. The process presented in this research is an efficient, low-cost and environmentally friendly biological process for the green production of L-MA from LB.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.1154-1162
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• 2021

The transcriptional capacities of target genes are strongly influenced by promoters, whereas few studies have focused on the development of robust, high-performance and cross-species promoters for wide application in different bacteria. In this work, four novel promoters (P_k.rtufB, P_k.r1, P_k.r2, and P_k.r3) were predicted from Ketogulonicigenium robustum and their inconsistency in the -10 and -35 region nucleotide sequences indicated they were different promoters. Their activities were evaluated by using green fluorescent protein (gfp) as a reporter in different species of bacteria, including K. vulgare SPU B805, Pseudomonas putida KT2440, Paracoccus denitrificans PD1222, Bacillus licheniformis and Raoultella ornithinolytica, due to their importance in metabolic engineering. Our results showed that the four promoters had different activities, with P_k.r1 showing the strongest activity in almost all of the experimental bacteria. By comparison with the commonly used promoters of E. coli (tufB, lac, lacUV5), K. vulgare (Psdh, Psndh) and P. putida KT2440 (JE111411), the four promoters showed significant differences due to only 12.62% nucleotide similarities, and relatively higher ability in regulating target gene expression. Further validation experiments confirmed their ability in initiating the target minCD cassette because of the shape changes under the promoter regulation. The overexpression of sorbose dehydrogenase and cytochrome c551 by P_k.r1 and P_k.r2 resulted in a 22.75% enhancement of 2-KGA yield, indicating their potential for practical application in metabolic engineering. This study demonstrates an example of applying bioinformatics to find new biological components for gene operation and provides four novel promoters with broad suitability, which enriches the usable range of promoters to realize accurate regulation in different genetic backgrounds.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.27-37
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• 2019

This study focused on the possibility of reducing the cooling load through the change of micro climate in the outdoor space during summer season. This study proposes an efficient planning model by comparing the effects of urban heat island mitigation through wind path planning, outdoor space vegetation, and exterior material change by using the basic model of the street-oriented block housing proposed in the previous research by the same author. As a result, the most effective wind path planning strategy in the street-oriented block housing was the change of the air flow through the mass height adjustment. When the tall building masses were staggered and arranged in a balanced manner, the overall wind environment could be improved. The greater the height difference between low and high masses, the better the air flow was shown. It was also important to arrange the building masses so that the inlet of the main wind was open and to allow the external space to connect to the adjacent block to create a continuous flow. The change of outdoor space vegetation and flooring, and the formation of wind paths through the opening of lower part also showed the effect of heat island reduction. In addition, the change of PMV in summer was the biggest influence of shadow by tall building mass. Attention should be paid to the fact that high-albedo exterior materials are adversely affected by multiple reflections in dense street-oriented block housing. The use of albedo of the exterior material showed that it is necessary to pay attention to apply in the high density block housing. This is attributed to the rise of the temperature due to the absorption of energy into the low-albedo flooring, where the high-albedo exterior causes multiple reflections.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.28-36
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• 2020

In shipbuilding industry, there is conducting most of works by welding at the shipyard, and the volume of welding is increasing with international trends of green ships. Welding joint is guaranteed quality through non-destructive testing (NDT). The manual welding inspection report is produced by identifying the drawings designed, which results in losses the many workforce and occurs human errors. To solve these problems, this paper covers a system that reports on inspection information is automatically generation by input data based on shipbuilding-specific CAD. The developed system analyzes the shape data from drawings of modeling. Also, the system determines welding joints through expansion of the part boundary and generates tag numbers. In addition, it provides the function to automatically extract the information needed for inspection such as weld length, thickness and etc. We conducted test to verify the usefulness of the developed system and confirmed that the welding inspection information extracted through system matches the information shown in drawings of modeling.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.71-86
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• 2021

This paper focuses on the development and assessment of the expected damage for the rocking response of rigid anchored blocks, with irregular geometry and non-uniform mass distribution, considering the site conditions and the seismicity of Mexico City. The non-linear behavior of the restrainers is incorporated to evaluate the pure tension and tension-shear failure mechanisms. A probabilistic framework is performed covering a wide range of block sizes, slenderness ratios and eccentricities using physics-based ground motion simulation. In order to incorporate the uncertainties related to the propagation of far-field earthquakes with a significant contribution to the seismic hazard at study sites, it was simulated a set of scenarios using a stochastic summation methods of small-earthquakes records, considered as Empirical Green's Function (EGFs). As Engineering Demand Parameter (EDP), the absolute value of the maximum block rotation normalized by the body slenderness, as a function of the peak ground acceleration (PGA) is adopted. The results show that anchorages are more efficient for blocks with slenderness ratio between two and three, while slenderness above four provide a better stability when they are not restrained. Besides, there is a range of peak intensities where anchored blocks located in soft soils are less vulnerable with respect to those located in firm soils. The procedure used in here allows to take decisions about risk, reliability and resilience assessment of different types of contents, and it is easily adaptable to other seismic environments.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.359-366
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• 2021

It's been more than 30 years since global warming by the increase in CO2 became a cause celebre worldwide. Recently the government promulgated Framework Act on on Low-Carbon Green Growth and has been continuously putting much effort into saving energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions such as an international climate change conference to prevent the increase in CO2. However, because most cities are not planned for energy saving, new cities should be planned as the active energy-efficient urban structure for 'sustainable urban development' from a long-term perspective. This study aims to design a new prototype for the sustainable energy-independent and environment-friendly housing estates which is the nation's new vision in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. A study on the energy-independent site planning and the quantitative standardization of its factor will be conducted.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.577-581
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• 2020

This study examined the physicochemical properties of radish pickle containing different natural preservatives (grapefruit seed extract, green tea extract, rosemary, or olive) stored for 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks. The hardness and color of the radish pickles with the grapefruit seed extract was higher than the other radish pickles during storage from week 0 to week 4. A 14.52% and 13.80% decrease in hardness and color were observed in the radish pickles with grapefruit seed extract (GFE), respectively. In addition, the total phenolic content was highest in the GFE in natural preservatives. Based on the results, GFE was selected as the optimal natural preservatives, and the growth of total viable bacteria and yeast were evaluated. The total viable bacteria and yeast showed similar patterns to the control. These results are expected to be useful in producing radish pickles with optimal quality and contribute to the development of various foods in the food industry.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.182-193
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• 2021

The transcription factor SHE1 was identified as an interacting partner with the cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) 1a protein in the yeast two-hybrid system, by a pull-down assay, and via bimolecular fluorescent complementation. Using fluorescent-tagged proteins and confocal microscopy, the CMV 1a protein itself was found distributed predominantly between the nucleus and the tonoplast membrane, although it was also found in speckles in the cytoplasm. The SHE1 protein was localized in the nucleus, but in the presence of the CMV 1a protein was partitioned between the nucleus and the tonoplast membrane. SHE1 expression was induced by infection of tobacco with four tested viruses: CMV, tobacco mosaic virus, potato virus X and potato virus Y. Transgenic tobacco expressing the CMV 1a protein showed constitutive expression of SHE1, indicating that the CMV 1a protein may be responsible for its induction. However, previously, such plants also were shown to have less resistance to local and systemic movement of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) expressing the green fluorescent protein, suggesting that the CMV 1a protein may act to prevent the function of the SHE1 protein. SHE1 is a member of the AP2/ERF class of transcription factors and is conserved in sequence in several Nicotiana species, although two clades of SHE1 could be discerned, including both different Nicotiana species and cultivars of tobacco, varying by the presence of particular insertions or deletions.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.50-60
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• 2021

This study investigated the reference case in the UK where legality and sustainability were systematically established for forest biomass represented by wood pellets. The UK is the country that best utilizes the trade value of wood pellets based on sustainability, with bioenergy accounting for 31% of total renewable energy production. The UK imported wood pellet, estimated 8,697 thousand tons in 2019. The UK government has continuously improved the renewable generation policy system to ensure the sustainability of wood pellets. The weighted average greenhouse gas emissions of a UK biomass power plant that received a Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) in 2018-19 was 26.71 gCO2e/MJ. These power plants are expected to meet the upper limit of 72.2 gCO2e/MJ by 2025. To issue an ROC, the biomass power plant must demonstrate that 70% of its total biofuel usage is sustainable. The UK uses the Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) certification system, which is gradually expanding to other European countries, to prove the sustainability of biomass energy fuels. Global wood pellet production with SBP certification in 2019 was 10.5 Mt. This trend has significant implications for introducing additional sustainability into the wood pellet policy of South Korea.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1656-1666
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• 2021

Dental pathogens lead to chronic diseases like periodontitis, which causes loss of teeth. Here, we examined the plausible antibacterial efficacy of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) synthesized using Cupressus macrocarpa extract (CME) against periodontitis-causing bacteria. The antimicrobial properties of CME-CuNPs were then assessed against oral microbes (M. luteus. B. subtilis, P. aerioginosa) that cause periodontal disease and were identified using morphological/ biochemical analysis, and 16S-rRNA techniques. The CME-CuNPs were characterized, and accordingly, the peak found at 577 nm using UV-Vis spectrometer showed the formation of stable CME-CuNPs. Also, the results revealed the formation of spherical and oblong monodispersed CME-CuNPs with sizes ranged from 11.3 to 22.4 nm. The FTIR analysis suggested that the CME contains reducing agents that consequently had a role in Cu reduction and CME-CuNP formation. Furthermore, the CME-CuNPs exhibited potent antimicrobial efficacy against different isolates which was superior to the reported values in literature. The antibacterial efficacy of CME-CuNPs on oral bacteria was compared to the synergistic solution of clindamycin with CME-CuNPs. The solution exhibited a superior capacity to prevent bacterial growth. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), and fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) of CME-CuNPs with clindamycin recorded against the selected periodontal disease-causing microorganisms were observed between the range of 2.6-3.6 ㎍/ml, 4-5 ㎍/ml and 0.312-0.5, respectively. Finally, the synergistic antimicrobial efficacy exhibited by CME-CuNPs with clindamycin against the tested strains could be useful for the future development of more effective treatments to control dental diseases.