• Applied Microscopy
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.347-355
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• 2000

Zinc is one of the most abundant oligoelements in the living cell. It appears tightly bound to some metalloproteins and nucleic acids, loosely bound to some metallothioneins or even as free ion. Small amounts of zinc ions (in the nanomolar range) regulate a plentitude of enzymatic proteins, receptors and transcription factors, thus rolls need accurate homeostasis of zinc ions. Zinc is an essential catalytic or structural element of many proteins, and a signaling messenger that is released by neural activity at many central excitatory synapses. Growing evidences suggest that zinc may also be a key mediator and modulator of the neuronal death associated with transient global ischemia and sustained seizures, as well as perhaps other neurological disease stoles. Some neurons have developed mechanisms to accumulate zinc in specific membrane compartment ('vesicular zinc') which can be evidenced using histochemical techniques. Substances giving a bright colour or emitting fluorescence when in contact with divalent metal ions are currently used to detect them inside cells; their use leads to the so called 'direct' methods. The fixation and precipitation of metal ions as insoluble salt precipitates, their maintenance along the histological process and, finally, their demonstration after autometallographic development are essential steps for other methods, the so called 'indirect methods'. This study is a short report on the autometallograhical approaches for zinc detection in the central nervous system (CNS) by means of a modified selenium method.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.123-132
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• 1982

These experiments were conducted to investigate the enzymatic characteristics of the purified $\alpha$-amylase (F-2A) of Bacillus circulans F-2 and the digestion rate of various starches. 1. The molecular weight was estimated to be 93000 by SDS-polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis. The isoelectric point was about pH 5.0. The optimum pH for the enzyme action was 6.0-6.5 and the stable pH ranged pH 5.5-12.0. The optimum temperature was 6$0^{\circ}C$, and the purified $\alpha$-amylase was stable below 4$0^{\circ}C$. 2. The purified $\alpha$-amylase was activated by Mn$^{＋＋}$ and Co$^{＋＋}$, whereas it was inhibited by Ag$^{＋}$, HT$^{＋＋}$, Cu$^{＋＋}$ and Pb$^{＋＋}$. 3. The purified $\alpha$-amylase is considered to have no sulfhydryl residue essential for its catalytic activity. 4. Michaelis constant (Km) was 1.704 mg/$m\ell$. Activation energy between 25-4$0^{\circ}C$ was 12.297 Kcal/mole, and between 40-6$0^{\circ}C$, it was 7.831 Kcal/mole. 5. The hydrolysis product from soluble starch, amylose and amylopectin in the early stage of hydrolysis was G$_{6}$, and as hydrolysis proceeds, G$_4$and G$_2$appeared. 6. Products from each oligosaccarides are as follows: G$_4$longrightarrow G$_2$＋ G$_2$,G$_3$ ＋G$_1$,G$_{5}$longrightarrow G$_4$＋G$_1$,G$_{6}$longrightarrowG$_4$＋ G$_2$,G$_{7}$ G$_4$,G$_{8}$longrightarrow G$_4$＋G$_4$, 7. On raw potato starch, raw sago starch and raw yam starch, the purified enzyme exhibited a remarkably high digestion rate than Porcine pancreatic amylase and Streptococcus bovis amylase.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.45 no.3 s.144
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• pp.309-316
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• 2006

Three sex pheromone components (cis-8-dodecenyl acetate (Z12Ac), trans-8-dodecenyl acetate (E12Ac), cis-8-dodecenol (Z12OH)) of the Oriental fruit moth, Grapholita molesta, were chemically synthesized. Especially to increase the composition of cis-stereoisomer, a triple bond intermediate was hydrogenated at $-20^{\circ}C$ with catalytic $Pd/BaSO_{4}$. The resulting product consisted of the acetates with a stereoisomer ratio in 92:8 (Z:E). The biological activity of the synthesized pheromone compounds was analyzed both in male responses and orientation disruption. The indoor pheromone effect was determined by male flight behavior showing wing movement in response to lure. Different mixtures of the synthetic pheromone components were prepared by mixing acetate and alcohol components in 100:0, 99:1, and 90:10 (g/g) and tested with a comparison of a standard commercial pheromone lure. The highest pheromone effect was observed in only acetate mixture (100:0) and the effect was reduced with the addition of the alcohol component. This indoor pheromone effect could be observed in field monitoring trial, in which 100:0 mixture showed the highest trap catches. Orientation disruption assay was conducted indoor by using a cage, in which the center had a commercial lure on sticky plate and the four candidates were placed at 6 cm away from the central lure on each of four directions. Test males were released to the arena during overnight (12 h) and then the caught males on the sticky plate were counted. The synthesized pheromone as well as the commercial pheromone showed 100% orientation disruption. However, the orientation disruption effect was reduced with decrease in the number of the surrounding disrupting pheromone baits. These results clearly suggest that the synthesized sex pheromone of G. molesta is biologically active and can be used for field mating disruption.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.111-124
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• 2003

Processes that cause immobilization of contaminants in soil are of great environmental importance because they may lead to a considerable reduction in the bioavailability of contaminants and they may restrict their leaching into groundwater. Previous investigations demonstrated that pollutants can be bound to soil constituents by either chemical or physical interactions. From an environmental point of view, chemical interactions are preferred, because they frequently lead to the formation of strong covalent bonds that are difficult to disrupt by microbial activity or chemical treatments. Humic substances resulting from lignin decomposition appear to be the major binding ligands involved in the incorporation of contaminants into the soil matrix through stable chemical linkages. Chemical bonds may be formed through oxidative coupling reactions catalyzed either biologically by polyphenol oxidases and peroxidases, or abiotically by certain clays and metal oxides. These naturally occurring processes are believed to result in the detoxification of contaminants. While indigenous enzymes are usually not likely to provide satisfactory decontamination of polluted sites, amending soil with enzymes derived from specific microbial cultures or plant materials may enhance incorporation processes. The catalytic effect of enzymes was evaluated by determining the extent of contaminants binding to humic material, and - whenever possible - by structural analyses of the resulting complexes. Previous research on xenobiotic immobilization was mostly based on the application of $^{14}$ C-labeled contaminants and radiocounting. Several recent studies demonstrated, however, that the evaluation of binding can be better achieved by applying $^{13}$ C-, $^{15}$ N- or $^{19}$ F-labeled xenobiotics in combination with $^{13}$ C-, $^{15}$ N- or $^{19}$ F-NMR spectroscopy. The rationale behind the NMR approach was that any binding-related modification in the initial arrangement of the labeled atoms automatically induced changes in the position of the corresponding signals in the NMR spectra. The delocalization of the signals exhibited a high degree of specificity, indicating whether or not covalent binding had occurred and, if so, what type of covalent bond had been formed. The results obtained confirmed the view that binding of contaminants to soil organic matter has important environmental consequences. In particular, now it is more evident than ever that as a result of binding, (a) the amount of contaminants available to interact with the biota is reduced; (b) the complexed products are less toxic than their parent compounds; and (c) groundwater pollution is reduced because of restricted contaminant mobility.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.291-303
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• 2020

Marine organism-derived toxins have negative effects not only on human health but also in aquaculture, fisheries, and marine ecosystems. However, traditional analytical methods are insufficient in preventing this threat. In this paper, we reviewed new rapid methods of toxin detection, which have been improved by adopting diverse types of nanomaterials and technologies. Moreover, we herein describe the main strategies for toxin detection and their related sensing performance. Notably, to popularize and commercialize these newly developed technologies, simplifying the process of pre-treating real samples real samples is very important. As part of these efforts, numerous studies have reported pretreatment methods based on the antibody-immobilized magnetic nanoparticles, and some cases have applied nanoparticles to enhance the sensing performance by utilizing the intrinsic catalytic activity. Furthermore, some reports have introduced fluorescent nanoparticles, such as quantum dots, to represent the lower detection limits of conventional enzyme-based colorimetric methods and lateral flow assays. Some studies using electrochemical measurements based on aptamer-nanoparticle complexes have also been announced. In addition, as the response to new toxins generated by changes in the marine environment is still lacking, further research on diagnostic and detection is also greatly needed for these kinds of marine toxins and their derivatives.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.91-97
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• 2019

Oxidative desulfurization (ODS) has received much attention in recent years because refractory sulfur compounds such as dibenzothiophenes can be oxidized selectively to their corresponding sulfoxides and sulfones, and these products can be removed by extraction and adsorption. In this work, The oxidative desulfurization of marine diesel fuel was performed in a batch reactor with hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) in the presence of various supported heteropoly acid catalysts. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, XRF, XPS and nitrogen adsorption isotherm techniques. Based on the sulfur removal efficiency of promising silica supported heteropoly acid catalysts, the ranking of catalytic activity was: $30\;H_3PW_{12}/SiO_2$ > $30\;H_3PMo_{12}/SiO_2$ > $30\;H_4SiW_{12}/SiO_2$, which appears to be related with their intrinsic acid strength. The $30\;H_3PW_{12}/SiO_2$ catalyst showed the highest initial sulfur removal efficiency of about 66% under reaction conditions of $30^{\circ}C$, $0.025g\;mL^{-1}$ (cat./oil), 1 h reaction time. However, through the recycle test of the $H_3PW_{12}/SiO_2$ catalyst, significant deactivation was observed, which was attributed to the elution of the active component $H_3PW_{12}$. By introducing cesium cation ($Cs^+$) into the $H_3PW_{12}/SiO_2$ catalyst, the stability of the catalyst was improved with changing the solubility, and the $Cs^+$ ion exchanged catalyst could be recycled for at least five times without severe elution.