The potential ability of Button mushroom compost (BMC) to solubilize heavy metals was estimated with metal contaminated soils collected from abandoned mines of Boryeong area in South Korea. The bacterial strains in BMC were isolated for investigating the mobilization of metals in soil or plant by the strains and identified according to 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. When metal solubilization potential of BMC was assessed in a batch experiment, the BMC was found to be capable of solubilizing metals in the presence of metals (Co, Pb and Zn) and the results showed that inoculation of BMC could increase the concentrations of water soluble Co, Pb and Cd by 35, 25 and 45% respectively, than those of non-inoculated soils. BMC-assisted growth promotion and metal uptake in sunflower (Helianthus annuus) was also evaluated in a pot experiment. In comparison with non-inoculated seedlings, the inoculation led to increase the growth of H. annuus by 27, 25 and 28% respectively in Co, Pb and Zn contaminated soils. Moreover, enhanced accumulation of Co, Pb and Zn in the shoot and root systems was observed in inoculated plants, where metal translocation from root to the above-ground tissues was also found to be enhanced by the BMC. The apparent results suggested that the BMC could effectively be employed in enhancing phytoextraction of Co, Pb and Zn from contaminated soils.

A total of 35 phosphate solubilizing bacterial strains were isolated from waste mushroom bed of Agar-icus bisporus in Buyeo-Gun, Chungnam and screened for the production of indole acetic acid (IAA). The best IAAproducing strain was identified as Pantoea rodasii using 16S rRNA analysis. In addition to the IAA production, thisstrain could act as an efficient phosphate solubilizer (1100µg ml-1 after 5days of incubation) also. The selected strainwas cultured under different conditions in order to assess the optimum conditions for maximum IAA production. Thenutrient broth (NB) medium was recorded as the best medium, where the maximum IAA production (229µg ml-1)was recorded at the start of stationary phase (12hours after inoculation) of the bacteria growth. The performanceof the strain was found to be maximum at the temperature of 30℃ followed by 25℃. IAA production was foundto be increased with increasing tryptophan concentration (from 0.1 to 0.6%), however beyond this limit, a slight reduc-tion in IAA production was observed. The strains’ ability to produce IAA was further confirmed by extraction ofcrude IAA and subsequent TLC analysis. A specific spot from the extracted IAA preparation was found correspondingwith the standard spot of IAA with same Rf value. The results of HPLC analysis conducted in identifying and quan-tifying the IAA production more precisely, are in agreement with the results of the assessment done with colorimetricmethod. As revealed by the results of the pot experiment, the isolated strain could significantly enhance the growth(as measured by shoot and root growth) of mung bean plants compared to that of non-inoculated plants. Thereforeit can be concluded that the present strain, Pantoea rodasii has great potential to be used as bio-inoculants.

Korean freshwater turtles are divided into native turtles, Chinemys reevesii in Geoemydidae, Pelodiscus sinensis in Trionychidae, and imported turtles, Trachemys scripta elegans, T. s. scripta, Pseudemys rubriventris and Ocadia sinensis. In this study, we determined the distribution of Korean freshwater turtles based on a field study and literature study, and considered the taxonomic position of unidentified native turtles. The study was carried out between May 2010 and November 2011 during the day time, and the capturing tool used to collect turtles consisted of net and metal frame. C. reevesii and P. sinensis were found in 16 and 11 places, respectively. C. reevesii, which inhabits the Korean peninsula, is a taxonomically controversial species, but it is presumed that the turtle belongs to Mauremys. Moreover recent taxonomic studies of the soft-shell turtle have shown that the Korean native species is P. maackii, and P. sinensis was imported from abroad and has been in the natural habitats of Korea since 1970s. The exterior shape and skeletal form of P. maackii and P. sinensis are nearly similar. However, the skin color and yellow spots on the shell could be used to distinguish the two species.

To induce the enhanced mutants of dinitroaniline herbicide pendimethalin degrading bacterium, Bacillus sp. MS202 was irradiated with gamma radiation at the dose of LD99 (3.35 kGy). Three enhanced mutants (MS202m7, MS202m14, MS202m18) were isolated fr

This study aims to propose an assessment tool of port service quality (PSQ) in the context of container transport logistics (CTLs), by taking the perspectives from port users. The CTLs defined in this study are the relevant activities of serving the physical flows of a container box from a point of origin via a container port to a point of destination. To address the ports’ role in collaboration between its channel members in CTLs, the PSQ measures for all port user groups (i.e. common PSQ measures) are selected based on the relevant CTLs activities involved by port, and its users within terminal/port area as well as throughout the CTLs chain. An importance-performance analysis (IPA) is applied as a diagnostic tool to analyse the status quo of Busan Port in CTLs contexts, by comparing the importance and performance (IP) scores against each individual CTLs criterion. The findings from the IPA reveal that port managers and policy makers at the Busan Port should concentrate on six PSQ measures (i.e. SR1, SR4, ITS1, VAS1, VAS4, ICI3) to enhance PSQ in CTLs. However, four measures (i.e. ITS2, ITS3, ITS4, VAS2) are identified as a possible overkill, indicating an area of inefficiency where a remedial action of the cost-cutting decision is necessary. On the other hand, the Busan port shows an outstanding performance on four measures such as SR2, SR3, ICI1 and ICI2. The measures are not only important but also high performance. The study findings provide managerial guidance to port managers in Busan Port, in view of searching for managerial and operational strategies for sustainable port growth.

The lorry based transportation system in korea has many problems such as high domestic logistic cost, environment pollution and road damage etc. Hereupon, the necessity of improvement for national logistics system has been proposed continuously. Therefore we carried out this research through AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process) to measure relative importance between effect factors and constraint factors and examined the possibility of Modal Shift from lorry transportation to coastal transportation. As the results of this research, the relative priority on modal shift policy enforcement (0.556) is higher than that of maintenance of the present transportation system(0.444).