We report the use of carrot, a new and inexpensive biomaterial source, for preparing high quality carbon dots (CDs) instead of semi-conductive quantum dots for bioimaging application. The as-derived CDs possessing down and up-conversion photoluminescence features were obtained from carrot juice by commonly used hydrothermal treatment. The corresponding physiochemical and optical properties were investigated by electron microscopy, fluorescent spectrometry, and other spectroscopic methods. The surfaces of obtained CDs were highly covered with hydroxyl groups and nitrogen groups without further modification. The quantum yield of as-obtained CDs was as high as 5.16%. The cell viability of HaCaT cells against a purified CD aqueous solution was higher than 85% even at higher concentration (700 μg mL−1) after 24 h incubation. Finally, CD cultured cells exhibited distinguished blue, green, and red colors, respectively, during in vitro imaging when excited by three wavelength lasers under a confocal microscope. Offering excellent optical properties, biocompatibility, low cytotoxicity, and good cellular imaging capability, the carrot juice derived CDs are a promising candidate for biomedical applications.

Multiple starters consisting of two Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strains (MJ1-4 and EMD17), Pichiafarinosa SY80, and Rhizopus oryzae were used for Doenjang making. Bacillus strains were selected based on their abilities to inhibit toxinogenic fungi and Bacillus cereus, fibrinolytic activity, and their ability to confer good flavor to Cheonggukjang. P. farinosa SY80 and R. oryzae, previously isolated from soy sauce, were selected because they were not inhibited by two bacilli. Doenjang was prepared by inoculation of multiple starters (A1 Doenjang). Control Doenjang was prepared by inoculation of B. subtilis KACC 16750 (Natto strain) and Aspergillus oryzae KCCM 60166 (A2 Doenjang). Another control (A3 Doenjang) was prepared by inoculation of microorganisms present in rice straw. Doenjang samples were fermented for 70 days at 20℃. pH of 3 samples decreased from the initial value of 6.4 to 5.8~6.0 and titratable acidity (TA) increased from 0.6 to 1.1~1.3. The amount of amino-type nitrogen increased during fermentation. There were slight differences in moisture, crude-protein, and crude-fat contents after 70 days. Contamination of fungi was observed only in A3 Doenjang and B. cereus was not detected from all 3 samples. A1 Doenjang showed the highest fibrinolytic activity and A2 Doenjang the second. These results indicate that Doenjang made with carefully selected starters was functionally improved and microbially more safe.

This study was performed to evaluate antimicrobial resistance of food-borne pathogens isolated from retail meat in Korea. A total of 157 samples of beef, pork, and chicken were collected and analyzed for E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter. Resistances to tetracycline were declined in accord with reduced usage of tetracycline in live stock production. E. coli stains from chicken meat had higher multi-drug resistance ratio than strains from other meat. One extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) producing E. coli and two ESBL producing Salmonella were identified in this study. ESBL producing Salmonella strains were confirmed to carry CTX-M-1 type genes.

This study was performed to evaluate antimicrobial resistance of food-borne pathogens isolated from retail meat in Korea. A total of 157 samples of beef, pork, and chicken were collected and analyzed for E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter. Resistances to tetracycline were declined in accord with reduced usage of tetracycline in live stock production. E. coli stains from chicken meat had higher multi-drug resistance ratio than strains from other meat. One extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) producing E. coli and two ESBL producing Salmonella were identified in this study. ESBL producing Salmonella strains were confirmed to carry CTX-M-1 type genes.

We investigate non-LTE effects on the H+ 3 level populations to help the analysis of the observed 2 and 3.5 micron H+ 3 emissions from the Jovian ionosphere. We begin by constructing a simple three- level model, in order to compute the intensity ratio of the R(3,4) line in the hot band to the Q(1,0) line in the fundamental band, which have been observed in the Jovian auroral regions. We find that non-LTE effects produce only small changes in the intensity ratios for ambient H2 densities less than or equal to 5×1011 cm−3. We then construct two comprehensive models by including all the collisional and radiative transitions between pairs of more than a thousand known H3+ rovibrational levels with energies less than 10000 cm−1. By employing these models, we find that the intensity ratios of the lines in the hot and fundamental bands are affected greatly by non-LTE effects, but the details depend sensitively on the number of collisional and radiative transitions included in the models. Non-LTE effects on the rovibrational population become evident at about the same ambient H2 densities in the comprehensive models as in the three-level model. However, the models show that rotational temperatures derived from the intensities of rotational lines in the 2 and 22 bands may differ significantly from the ambient temperatures in the non-LTE regime. We find that significant non-LTE effects appear near and above the H3+ peak, and that the kinetic temperatures in the Jovian thermospheric temperatures derived from the observed line ratios in the 2 and 3.5 micron H3+ emissions are highly model dependent.

Root knot nematode species, such as Meloidogyne hapla, M. incognita, M. arenaria and M. javanica are economically most notorious nematode pests, causing serious damage to the various crops throughout world. In this study, DNA sequence analyses of the D1-D3 expansion segments of the 28S gene in the ribosomal DNA were conducted to characterize genetic variation of the four Meloidogyne species obtained from Korea and United States. PCR-RFLP (Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism), SCAR (Sequence Characterized Amplified Region) marker and RAPD (Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA) also were used to develop the methods for exact and rapid species identification. In the sequence analysis of the D1-D3 expansion segments, only a few nucleotide sequence variation were detected among M. incognita, M. arenaria, and M. javanica, except for M. hapla. The PCR-RFLP analysis that involves amplification of the mitochondrial COII and lrRNA region yielded one distinct amplicon for M. hapla at 500 bp, enabling us to distinguish M. hapla from M. incognita, M. arenaria, M. javanica reproduced by obligate mitotic parthenogenesis. SCAR markers successfully identified the four root knot nematode species tested. We are under development of RAPD primers specific to the three root knot nematodes found in Korea.

A new ion transport code for planetary ionospheric studies has been developed with consideration of velocity differences among ion species involving ion-ion collision. Most of previous planetary ionosphere models assumed that ions diffuse through non-moving ion and neutral background in order to consolidate continuity and momentum equations for ions into a simple set of diffusion equations. The simplification may result in unreliable density profiles of ions at high altitudes where ion velocities are fast and their velocity differences are significant enough to cause inaccuracy when computing ion-ion collision. A new code solves explicitly one-dimensional continuity and momentum equations for ion densities and velocities by utilizing divided Jacobian matrices in matrix inversion necessary to the Newton iteration procedure. The code has been applied to Martian nightside ionosphere models, as an example computation. The computed density profiles of O+, OH+, and HCO+ differ by more than a factor of 2 at altitudes higher than 200 km from a simple diffusion model, whereas the density profile of the dominant ion, O2+, changes little. Especially, the density profile of HCO+ is reduced by a factor of about 10 and its peak altitude is lowered by about 40 km relative to a simple diffusion model in which HCO+ ions are assumed to diffuse through non-moving ion background, O2+. The computed effects of the new code on the Martian nightside models are explained readily in terms of ion velocities that were solved together with ion densities, which were not available from diffusion models. The new code should thus be expected as a significantly improved tool for planetary ionosphere modelling.

For the planned experiments of Korea Sounding Rocket-III (KSR-III), we have constructed a model of MUV dayglow in the mid-latitude. The model computes relative intensities of individual emission lines in the Vegard-Kaplan and 2PG band systems of N2 in the wavelength range of 2500-3500 Å. In addition to the emission lines, solar scattered continuum was computed by an extended LOWTRAN7 code, in which we have included solar scattering in altitudes higher than 100 km by using MSIS90 thermosphere model. Ratios among vibrational bands of VK and 2PG system, were computed from the observed MUV dayglow spectra of Cleary et al. (1995). The model provides MUV dayglow intensitiy profiles with a wavelength resolution of 3.13 Å as a function of altitude. The computed intensity profiles have been utilized in designing the KSR-III airglow photometers.

We have constructed a non-spherical model for the hot oxygen corona of Mars by including the effects of planetary rotation and diurnal variation of the Martian ionosphere. Exospheric oxygen densities are calculated by integrating ensemble of ballistic and escaping oxygen atoms from the exobase over the entire planet. The hot oxygen atoms are produced by dissociative recombination of O+2, the major ion in the Martian ionosphere. The densities of hot oxygen atoms at the exobase are estimated from electron densities which have been measured to vary with solar zenith angle. Our model shows that the density difference of hot oxygen atoms between noon and terminator is about two orders of magnitude near the exobase, but reduces abruptly around altitudes of 2000 km due to lateral transport. The diurnal variation of hot oxygen densities remains significant up to the altitude of 10000 km. The diurnal variation of the hot oxygen corona should thus be considered when the upcoming Nozomi measurements are analyzed. The non-spherical model of the hot oxy-gen corona may contribute to building sophisticate solar wind interaction models and thus result in more accurate escaping rate of oxygens from Mars.

A baffle system for an airglow photometer, which will be on board the Korea Sounding Rocket-III(KSR-III), has been designed to suppress strong solar scattered lights from the atmosphere below the earth limb. Basic principles for designing a baffle system, such as determination of baffle dimensions, arrangement of vanes inside a baffle tube, and coating of surfaces, have been reviewed from the literature. By considering the constraints of the payload size of the KSR-III and the incident angle of solar light scattered from the earth limb, we first determined dimensions of a two-stage baffle tube for the airglow photometer. We then calculated positions and heights of vanes to prohibit diffusely reflected lights inside the baffle tube from entering into the photometer. In order to evaluate performance of the designed baffle system, we have developed a ray tracing program using a Monte Carlo method. The program computed attenuation factors of the baffle system on the order of 10 -6 for angles larger than 10°, which satisfies the requirements of the KSR-III airglow experiment. We have also measured the attenuation factors for an engineering model of the baffle system with a simple collimating beam apparatus, and confirmed the attenuation factors up to about 10 -4. Limitation of the apparatus does not allow to make more accurate measurements of the attenuation factors.

We investigate the effects of planetary rotation on the exospheres of the earth and Mars with simple collisionless models. We develope a numerical code that computes exospheric densities by integrating velocity functions at the exobase with a 10 point Gauss method. It is assumed in the model that atoms above the exobase altitude move collisionlessly on an orbit under the planet's gravity. Temperatures and densities at the exobase over the globe are adopted from MSIS-86 for the earth and from Bougher et al's MTGCM for Mars. For both the earth and Mars, the rotation affects the exospheric density distribution significantly in two ways: (1) the variation of the exospheric density distribution is shifted toward the rotational direction with respect to the variation at the exobase, (2) the exospheric densities in general increase over the non-rotating case. We find that the rotational effects are more significant for lower thermospheric temperatures. Both the enhancement of densities and shift of the exospheric distribution due to rotation have not been considered in previous models of Martian exosphere. Our non-spherical distribution with the rotational effects should contribute to refining the hot oxygen corona models of Mars which so far assume simple geometry. Our model will also help in analyzing exospheric data to be measured by the upcoming Nozomi mission to Mars.

A small ultraviolet telescope which can be established on a satellite of the Korean small satellite (KITSAT) series is proposed with a concept design. Possible scientific objectives are identified, and the basic structure and characteristics of the telescope are described. In order to overcome limitation of pointing and stabilization accuracy of the KITSAT, a system of secondary stabilization is designed at the focal plane, where both star-tracking CCD and science detector share a 1.2deg field of view. Star tracking information is fed to three-axis drivers that move the platform on which the star-tracking CCD and science detector are installed. The proposed stabilization system is light and efficient, in comparison with a standard system of stabilization that basically moves the whole telescope or satellite. With a good intensified CCD and second stabilization system, the telescope will achieve a limiting magnitude of 21 at 1600 angstrom, which is sufficient for observing a variety of celestial objects, such as hot stars, nebulae, galaxies with UV excess, and quasars.

Observational trends of the Jovian UV aurora, obtained from the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph(GHRS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope(HST), are explained by a simple two component model. The model consists of cool and warm components with temperatures of about 400 and 1000K, and with methane absorptions corresponding to column densities of 6-9e16/cm2 and no methane absorption, respectively. Three trends that (1) brighter UV spectra have lower temperatures, and (2) spectra with stronger methane absorption show lower temperatures, and (3) spectra with stronger methane absorption seem to be brighter, are accounted by combinations of two components with various filling factors and intensity ratios. The model implies that precipitating particles responsibie for the cool component have higher individual energy and stronger energy flux than those for the warm component. Estimation of GHRS aperture location on UV auroral images taken by the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2(WFPC2) suggests that the cool component may correspond to emission along the oval, and the warm component to diffuse features of UV emission. Preliminary comparison of images by the WFPC2 and those by H3+ 4 micrometer ground-based observations implies that the warm component causes both weak diffuse features of UV emission and bright H3+ emission in an area at lambda III - 150 deg. inside the northern oval.

We have analyzed infrared (IR) images of Jupiter which was observed at the McDonald Observatory, Texas, U.S.A., during the P/SHoemaker-LEvy 9 (SL9) impact period and about one week after the last impact. The IR images were obtained on the 2.7m telescope using a NICMOS array with filters to isolate the 1.5 μm NH3 band, the 2.3 μm CH4 band, the 2.12 μm H2 S(0) pressure-induced absorption, and the continua at 1.58 μm and 2.0 μm (short K-band). All images except those with the 1.58 μm continuum filter show bright impact sites against the relatively dark Jovian disk near the impact latitude of about 45° S. This implies that dusts originated from the impacts reflect the solar radiation at high altitudes before absorbed by stratospheric CH4, NH3 or H2. The impact sites observed with the 2.3 μm filter are conspicuously bright against a very dark background. The morphology of impact sites, G, L, and H at 2.3 and 2.12 μm filters shows clearly an asymmetric structure toward the incident direction of the comet fragments, in agreement with the studies of visible impact images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. Comparisons of reflectances of G, L, and H sites with simple radiative transfer models suggest that optically thick dust layers were formed at high altitudes at which methane absorption attenuates incoming sunlight only by about 1%. The dust layers in these sites seem to form at about the same altitude regardless of the magnitude of the impacts, but they appear to descend gradually after the impacts. The dust layers have optical depths of 2-5, according to the models.

Gold kiwifruit was fermented with Lactobacillus plantarum CK10 derived from kimchi and the fermented products were extracted with ethanol at various fermentation time-points The bacterial cellular density, total titratable acidity, total polyphenol content (TPC), and total flavonoid content (TFC) increased during fermentation, while pH values and total soluble solids decreased. Levels of TPC and TFC were highest after five days, at 1.21±0.13 mg GAE/g dry weight and 0.36±0.04 mg RE/g dry weight, respectively. The antioxidant activities of the fermented gold kiwifruit were analyzed using Fe2+ chelating activity, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH)-, and 2,2'-azino-bis(3- ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS)- radical scavenging activities, and superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like activity. The Fe2+ chelating activity of gold kiwifruit (125-500 μg/mL) peaked after five days of fermentation at 38.40-78.47%. The DPPH radical- scavenging activity and SOD-like activity were somewhat higher after seven days of fermentation (36.01-86.81% and 54.79-93.83% at 2.5-10.0 mg/mL concentration of samples, respectively). On the other hand, the ABTS radical- scavenging activity of fermented gold kiwifruit was similar to that of the non-fermented form. The polyphenol and flavonoid contents were significantly correlated with the antioxidant activity. In conclusion, our results suggest that TPC, TFC, and antioxidant activity were increased after five and seven days of fermentation, respectively. Therefore, fermented gold kiwifruit with its increased antioxidant activity could be useful in the development of functional foods.

Ascidian embryos have become an important model for embryological studies, offering a simple example for mechanisms of cytoplasmic components segregation. It is a well-known example that the asymmetric segregation of mitochondria into muscle lineage cells occurs during ascidian embryogenesis. However, it is still unclear which signaling pathway is involved in this process. To obtain molecular markers for studying mechanisms involved in the asymmetric distribution of mitochondria, we have produced monoclonal antibodies, Mito-1, Mito-2 and Mito-3, that specifically recognize mitochondriarich cytoplasm in cells of the ascidian Halocynthia roretzi embryos. These antibodies stained cytoplasm like reticular structure in epidermis cells, except for nuclei, at the early tailbud stage. Similar pattern was observed in vital staining of mitochondria with DiOC2, a fluorescent probe of mitochondria. Immunostaining with these antibodies showed that mitochondria are evenly distributed in the animal hemisphere blastomeres at cleavage stages, whereas not in the vegetal hemisphere blastomeres. Mitochondria were transferred to the presumptive muscle and nerve cord lineage cells of the marginal zone in the vegetal hemisphere more than to the presumptive mesenchyme, notochord and endoderm lineage of the central zone. Therefore, it is suggested that these antibodies will be useful markers for studying mechanisms involved in the polarized distribution of mitochondria during ascidian embryogenesis.