• CELLMED
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.4.1-4.8
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• 2021

Background: The Unani system of medicine has been practised since centuries for the treatment of a range of diseases. In spite of their efficacy they have been widely criticised due to the lack of standardization and poor quality control. Standardization of Unani medicine is a valuable issue at the present because they are very prone to contamination, deterioration, adulteration and variation in composition due to biodiversity as well as careless collection. Objective: To Standardize and Development of HPTLC Fingerprinting of a polyherbal Unani formulation Qurs-e-Safa. Materials and methods: The conventional and modern analytical techniques were used to standardise Qurs-e-Safa. The study was carried into three different batches of Qurs-e-Safa prepared with its ingredients. The parameters studied are organoleptic, microscopic, physicochemical parameters, phytochemical screening, TLC, HPTLC profile, aflatoxin, microbial load and heavy metal analysis. Results and conclusion: Qurṣ-e-Sa'fa is dark yellow in colour and aromatic smell. Uniformity of diameter and weight variation were found to be 13 ± 0, and 524.7 ± 1.72 mg. friability, hardness and disintegration time of all 3 batches were found to be (0.0615 ± 0.004, 0.0885 ± 0.0047 and 0.0725 ± 0.0058), (3.5 ± 0.2886, 3.67 ± 0.1674 and 3.67 ± 0.1674) and (16 to 17 minutes). Extractive value were found to be maximum in distilled water (38.488 ± 0.20, 37.3824 ± 0.38 and 39.8177 ± 0.13) followed by alcohol (27.5406 ± 0.54, 27.5656 ± 0.32 and 26.9229 ± 0.25). Loss of weight on drying, pH, total ash, acid insoluble ash, qualitative test was set in. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of Carbohydrates, Phenols, Resins, Proteins, Steroids, fixed oil and Flavonoids. The microbial load was found absent and heavy metals were within permissible limits. The data evolved from the study may serve as a reference to validate and also help in the quality control of other finished products in future research.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.88-99
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• 2021

In this study, a land-based marine closed mesocosm (LMCM) experiment was performed to objectively assess the initial stability of an artificial ecosystem experiment against biological and non-biological factors when evaluating ecosystem risk assessment. Changes in the CV (coefficient of value) amplitude were used as data to analyze the stability of the experimental system. The CV of the experimental variables in the LMCM groups (200, 400, 600, and 1,000 L) was maintained within the range of 20-30% for the abiotic variables in this study. However, the difference in CV amplitude in biological factors such as chlorophyll-a, phytoplankton, and zooplankton was high in the 600 L and 1,000 L LMCM groups. This result was interpreted as occurring due to the lack of control over biological variables at the beginning of the experiment. In addition, according to the ANOVA results, significant differences were found in biological contents such as COD (chemical oxygen demand), chlorophyll-a, phosphate, and zooplankton in the CV values between the LMCM groups(p<0.05). In this study, the stabilization of biological variables was necessary to to control and maintain the rate of changes in initial biological variables except for controllable water quality and nutrients. However, given the complexity of the eco-physiological activities of large-scale LMCMs and organisms in the experimental group, it was difficult to do. In conclusion, artificial ecosystem experiments as a scientific tool can distinguish biological and non-biological factors and compare and analyze clear endpoints. Therefore, it is deemed necessary to establish research objectives, select content that can maintain stability, and introduce standardized analysis techniques that can objectively interpret the experimental results.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.224-237
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• 2021

Purpose: Paeonia Radix Alba is a traditional herbal medicine used to treat the liver and the spleen. Many studies have reported that Paeonia Radix Alba extract (PR) affects liver injury, but there has been no study on liver injuries induced by thioacetamide (TAA). Therefore, we aimed at evaluating the effect of PR on a TAA-induced acute liver injury (ALI) model. Methods: The antioxidant activity of PR was assayed by the content of total polyphenol, total flavonoid, 1,1-diphenyl-2'-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzo-thiazoline-6-sulfonicacid) (ABTS) radical scavenging activities in vitro test. ALI was induced via-intraperitoneal injection of TAA (200 mg/kg body weight) for three consecutive days. Also, silymarin (100 mg/kg body weight) and PR (100 or 200 mg/kg body weight) were administered at 1 hours 30 minutes prior to TAA treatment. The levels of ammonia, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), and glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT) were analyzed using an assay kit. The expressions of antioxidant proteins including Nrf2, Keap1, HO-1, SOD, catalase, and GPx-1/2 and oxidative stress-related proteins including NOX2, p47^phox, and p22^phox were evaluated by the western blot analysis. Results: PR showed excellent antioxidant activity in vitro. TAA administration increased the levels of ammonia, GOT, and GPT in the ALI control group compared to the normal group, whereas it was significantly reduced by PR pretreatment. Moreover, NADPH oxidase protein expressions were upregulated after TAA treatment, while the elevated expressions were inhibited by PR pretreatment. The expressions of antioxidant protein were downregulated in the ALI control group, whereas Nrf2 activation in the PR group was accompanied by increased levels of antioxidant enzymes. Conclusion: PR administration increased the antioxidant enzymes via activation of the Keap1/Nrf2 pathway and inhibited the protein levels of NADPH oxidase factors. Taken together, these results showed that PR treatment may be considered to ameliorate acute liver injury induced by TAA.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.294-304
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• 2021

This study aims to obtain basic data for systematic restoration by analyzing the monitoring results of the Shimwon Valley Ecological Landscape Restoration Project area in Jirisan National Park. In 2017, when the restoration project was completed, 12 monitoring plots and 4 control plots were installed for vegetation monitoring, and changes in the relative dominance, species diversity index and similarity between 2017 and 2020 were analyzed. The species diversity index of the surveyed areas where trees were planted during the restoration project was 0-1.4552, and the similarity index with the control group was 0% except for one survey area at 1.32%. The very low species diversity index and similarity index in the survey areas were attributed to the loss of trees planted during the restoration project due to death, damage by wild boars, or erosion by running water. On the other hand, the species diversity index was 0.9538-2.3222 in the monitoring plot where no tree was planted, and the similarity index was analyzed to be as high as 8.33%. It is necessary to continue the long-term monitoring for the development of ecological landscape restoration methods in the national park and analysis of the succession in monitoring plots where no trees were planted.

• Conservation Science in Museum
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• v.25
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• pp.35-50
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• 2021

This study analyzed the basic properties of soil material gathered around Maegok-dong in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do Province (hereafter, "Maegok soil") and the physicochemical changes in the Maegok soil resulting from the addition of other clay materials in order to present scientific information about the properties of clay available for pottery production. Gravel, coarse sand, and fine sand account for 73% of the total mass of the Maegok soil. Therefore, it required refinement through sifting in order to serve in pottery clay. After sifting, the amount of silt and clay in the soil increased to 95% of the total mass. However, since it lacked plasticity and viscosity, buncheong soil was added. When it was mixed with bungcheong soil at a ratio of 7:3, Maegok soil improved as pottery clay as its viscosity increased, demonstrating compositional properties appropriate for ceramic clay even after firing. Further, its water-absorption rate was decreased to 0.40. This means that soil gathered from anywhere can be used for pottery-making by refining its original properties and through mixture with clay with specific components which help the pottery maintain its shape even after firing.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.241-262
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• 2021

This paper reviewed the necessity of a information and communication technology (ICT)-based smart livestock system as a development strategy for the animal life industry in the future. It also predicted the trends of livestock and animal food until 2050, 30 years later. Worldwide, livestock raising and consumption of animal food are rapidly changing in response to population growth, aging, reduction of agriculture population, urbanization, and income growth. Climate change can change the environment and livestock's productivity and reproductive efficiencies. Livestock production can lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions, land degradation, water pollution, animal welfare, and human health problems. To solve these issues, there is a need for a preemptive future response strategy to respond to climate change, improve productivity, animal welfare, and nutritional quality of animal foods, and prevent animal diseases using ICT-based smart livestock system fused with the 4th industrial revolution in various aspects of the animal life industry. The animal life industry of the future needs to integrate automation to improve sustainability and production efficiency. In the digital age, intelligent precision animal feeding with IoT (internet of things) and big data, ICT-based smart livestock system can collect, process, and analyze data from various sources in the animal life industry. It is composed of a digital system that can precisely remote control environmental parameters inside and outside the animal husbandry. The ICT-based smart livestock system can also be used for monitoring animal behavior and welfare, and feeding management of livestock using sensing technology for remote control through the Internet and mobile phones. It can be helpful in the collection, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of a wide range of information that farmers need. It can provide new information services to farmers.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2021

This study aimed to a basic research for the development of dye-sensitized solar cells that the wavelength band required for crop growth is passed, and the wavelength band that is not necessary for crop growth can be used for the generation of electricity. The transmissivity according to the illuminance was about 10% higher in the Blue filter and the Green filter than in the Red filter, but the transmissivity according to the PPFD was about 10% higher in the Red filter and the Blue filter than in the Green filter. In addition, the greenhouse attached with 30% infrared blocking filter was predicted to have a lower air temperature than other greenhouses, but it was investigated that there was no significant difference. Therefore, it was investigated that the application of the infrared cut filter would not be appropriate in a greenhouse that controls the temperature by opening a window. As a result of investigating, it was found that the Green and Blue filter greenhouses had the severe overgrowth and the stems grew weaker. The fresh weight of paprika in the infrared blocking filter greenhouse was the highest at 678.9g, and the growth of Red filter and the control greenhouses was relatively poor. Photosynthetic rate, amount of transpiration, and stomatal conductivity were the infrared blocking filter and control greenhouse higher than others. On the other hand, the water use efficiency did not show a big difference.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.125-140
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• 2022

Road Deposited Sediment (RDS) is the solids formed from the wear of road, wear of vehicles, exhausts, and the input of the emissions from various sources out of the roads. RDS is seriously polluted by organic matter, nutrients, and metals. RDS plays an important role as the sink and the transport medium of the associated pollutants because RDS can be carried to the adjacent water system via stormwater runoff. In this regard, the heavy metals in RDS were investigated based on the publications. The contents of the metals in RDS were highly variable. The concentration of Cr, Ni, Cu, Fe, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb in urban RDS in various regions was in a range of 3.16-3,410, 1.15-1,382, 20.2-9,069, 2,980-124,853, 81-2,550, 2.3-214, 0.19-21.3, and 15.21-1,125 mg/kg, respectively. The anthropogenic enrichment of the metals in RDS was confirmed by the high concentration of Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb. The contents of the metals were higher in industrial and traffic areas than in residential areas, while they were generally increased with decreasing particle size. It is believed that this study's results would contribute to quantifying the metals' load via RDS and establishing control strategies.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.217-230
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• 2022

The adequate control of TBM face pressure is of vital importance to maintain face stability by preventing face collapse and surface settlement. An EPB shield TBM excavates the ground by applying face pressure with the excavated soil in the pressure chamber. One of the challenges during the EPB shield TBM operation is the control of face pressure due to difficulty in managing the excavated soil. In this study, the face pressure of an EPB shield TBM was predicted using the geological and operational data acquired from a domestic TBM tunnel site. Four machine learning algorithms: KNN (K-Nearest Neighbors), SVM (Support Vector Machine), RF (Random Forest), and XGB (eXtreme Gradient Boosting) were applied to predict the face pressure. The model comparison results showed that the RF model yielded the lowest RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) value of 7.35 kPa. Therefore, the RF model was selected as the optimal machine learning algorithm. In addition, the feature importance of the RF model was analyzed to evaluate appropriately the influence of each feature on the face pressure. The water pressure indicated the highest influence, and the importance of the geological conditions was higher in general than that of the operation features in the considered site.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.277-286
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• 2021

Background: As trade increases, the influx of various alien species and their spread to new regions are prevalent and no longer a special problem. Anthropogenic activities and climate changes have made the distribution of alien species out of their native range common. As a result, alien species can be easily found anywhere, and they have nothing but only a few differences in intensity. The prevalent distribution of alien species adversely affects the ecosystem, and a strategic management plan must be established to control them effectively. To this end, hot spots and cold spots were analyzed according to the degree of distribution of invasive alien plants, and major environmental factors related to hot spots were found. We analyzed the 10,287 distribution points of 126 species of alien plants collected through the national survey of alien species by the hierarchical model of species communities (HMSC) framework. Results: The explanatory and fourfold cross-validation predictive power of the model were 0.91 and 0.75 as AUC values, respectively. The hot spots of invasive plants were found in the Seoul metropolitan area, Daegu metropolitan city, Chungcheongbuk-do Province, southwest shore, and Jeju island. Generally, the hot spots were found where the higher maximum temperature of summer, precipitation of winter, and road density are observed, but temperature seasonality, annual temperature range, precipitation of the summer, and distance to river and sea were negatively related to the hot spots. According to the model, the functional traits accounted for 55% of the variance explained by the environmental factors. The species with higher specific leaf areas were more found where temperature seasonality was low. Taller species preferred the bigger annual temperature range. The heavier seed mass was only preferred when the max temperature of summer exceeded 29 ℃. Conclusions: In this study, hot spots were places where 2.1 times more alien plants were distributed on average than non-hot spots (33.5 vs 15.7 species). The hot spots of invasive plants were expected to appear in less stressful climate conditions, such as low fluctuation of temperature and precipitation. Also, the disturbance by anthropogenic factors or water flow had positive influences on the hot spots. These results were consistent with the previous reports about the ruderal or competitive strategies of invasive plants instead of the stress-tolerant strategy. The functional traits are closely related to the ecological strategies of plants by shaping the response of species to various environmental filters, and our result confirmed this. Therefore, in order to effectively control alien plants, it is judged that the occurrence of disturbed sites in which alien plants can grow in large quantities is minimized, and the river management of waterfronts is required.