• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.138-147
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• 2007

Metabolic pathway is a series of chemical reactions occuning within a cell and can be used for drug development and understanding of life phenomenon. Many biologists are trying to extract metabolic pathway information from huge literatures for their metabolic-circuit regulation study. We propose a text-mining technique based on the keyword and pattern. Proposed technique utilizes a web robot to collect huge papers and stores them into a local database. We use gene ontology to increase compound recognition rate and NCBI Tokenizer library to recognize useful information without compound destruction. Furthermore, we obtain useful sentence patterns representing metabolic pathway from papers and KEGG database. We have extracted 66 patterns in 20,000 documents for Glycosphingolipid species from KEGG, a representative metabolic database. We verify our system for nineteen compounds in Glycosphingolipid species. The result shows that the recall is 95.1%, the precision 96.3%, and the processing time 15 seconds. Proposed text mining system is expected to be used for metabolic pathway reconstruction.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.526-532
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• 2013

The effect of CNT dispersion method on rheological and electrical properties of polystyrene/carbon nanotube (PS/CNT) nanocomposites via latex technology was compared. The nanocomposites were prepared through freeze-drying the dispersed suspension comprised of CNTs and PS particles. In this study, physical dispersion method, either sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) addition or polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) wrapping, was employed to prevent the deterioration of intrinsic properties of CNT caused by chemical modification. The physical method applied to latex technology was very effective in CNT dispersion. With SDS addition, the enhancement of rheological properties was low compared to PVP wrapping because the properties of matrix were deteriorated due to the incorporation of low molecular weight SDS. The electrical percolation threshold of PS/SDS-stabilized CNT and PS/PVP-wrapped CNT nanocomposites was 0.23 and 0.90 wt%, respectively. The enhancement of electrical conductivity was low in the case of PVP wrapping because the non-conducting PVPs wrapped around CNT restricted the electrical connection between CNTs.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2012

Recently developed polyketone fiber has various applications in the mechanical rubber goods as reinforcement because of its good mechanical properties. However, its surface is not suitable for good adhesion with the rubber matrix. Thus, a surface modification is essential to obtain the good interfacial adhesion. Plasma treatment, in this study, has been conducted to modify the surface of the polyketone fiber. The morphological changes of the fibers by oxygen plasma treatment were observed by using SEM and AFM. The chemical composition changes of PK fiber surface treated with oxygen plasma were investigated using an XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). Finally, the effect of these changes on the interfacial adhesion between fiber and rubber was analyzed by using a microdroplet debonding test. By the plasma treatment, oxygen moieties on the fiber surface increased with processing time and power. The surface RMS roughness increases until the proper processing condition, but a long plasma processing time resulted in a rather reduced roughness because of surface degradation. When the treatment time and power were 60 s and 80 W, respectively, the highest interfacial shear strength (IFSS) was obtained between the PK fiber and natural rubber. However, as the treatment time and power were higher than 60 s and 80 W, respectively, the IFSS decreased because of degradation of the PK fiber surface by severe plasma treatment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.44-45
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• 2010

We are currently conducting studies on culturing and biocompatibility assessment of various cells such as neural stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells(IPS cells) on carbon nanotube (CNT), on nerve regeneration electrodes, and on silicon wafers with a focus on developing nerve integrated CNT based bio devices for interfacing with living organisms, in order to develop brain-machine interfaces (BMI). In addition, we are carried out the chemical modification of carbon nanotube (mainly SWCNTs)-based bio-nanosensors by the plasma ion irradiation (plasma activation) method, and provide a characteristic evaluation of a bio-nanosensor using bovine serum albumin (BSA)/anti-BSA binding and oligonucleotide hybridization. On the other hand, the researches in the case of "novel plasma" have been widely conducted in the fields of chemistry, solid physics, and nanomaterial science. From the above-mentioned background, we are conducting basic experiments on direct irradiation of body tissues and cells using a micro-spot atmospheric pressure plasma source. The device is a coaxial structure having a tungsten wire installed inside a glass capillary, and a grounded ring electrode wrapped on the outside. The conditions of plasma generation are as follows: applied voltage: 5-9 kV, frequency: 1-3 kHz, helium (He) gas flow: 1-1.5 L/min, and plasma irradiation time: 1-300 sec. The experiment was conducted by preparing a culture medium containing mouse fibroblasts (NIH3T3) on a culture dish. A culture dish irradiated with plasma was introduced into a $CO_2$-incubator. The small animals used in the experiment involving plasma irradiation into living tissue were rat, rabbit, and pick and are deeply anesthetized with the gas anesthesia. According to the dependency of cell numbers against the plasma irradiation time, when only He gas was flowed, the growth of cells was inhibited as the floatation of cells caused by gas agitation inside the culture was promoted. On the other hand, there was no floatation of cells and healthy growth was observed when plasma was irradiated. Furthermore, in an experiment testing the effects of plasma irradiation on rats that were artificially given burn wounds, no evidence of electric shock injuries was found in the irradiated areas. In fact, the observed evidence of healing and improvements of the burn wounds suggested the presence of healing effects due to the growth factors in the tissues. Therefore, it appears that the interaction due to ion/radicalcollisions causes a substantial effect on the proliferation of growth factors such as epidermal growth factor (EGF), nerve growth factor (NGF), and transforming growth factor (TGF) that are present in the cells.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.40 no.2 s.175
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• pp.183-190
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• 2007

Soil layer in vegetation filter strip is one of the very important factor for reduction of non-point pollutants by physical, chemical and biological reactions of it through infiltration process. This study was carried out to prepare more effective vegetation filter strip through modification of soil layer for river water quality improvement. Therefore, the main aims of this study are to compare and evaluate normal (straighten type) and modified (step type) vegetation filter strip, which make artificially change the soil layer to improve infiltration ability, through bench scale experiments. In the results of this study, vegetation filter strip of step type is much more highly reduction effectiveness of pollutants in surface flow compared with normal vegetation filter strip. In case of below effluent, however, it appeared that the vegetation filter strip modified soil layer showed lower reduction effectiveness of pollutants than the general vegetation filter strip. This result was judged because effluent through the vegetation filter strip of step type passed bigger size of aggregate or sand than the vegetation filter strip of straighten type. If we compare it as a definition of pollutant load to estimate total amount of reduced pollutants by vegetation filter strip, reduced pollutants load by step type showed higher than those by straighten type because below effluent amount relied on total effluent amount was higher at step type (4%) than at straighten type (2%). In conclusion, the vegetation filter strip of step type to improve infiltration effect is much more reduction effectiveness of pollutants than vegetation filter strip of straighten type.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.1 s.129
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• pp.48-57
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• 2005

Phthalate esters are known as plasticizers and some of them suspected as endocrine disrupting chemicals. In this study, in order to identify the mechanism of phthalate esters degradation by white rot fungus, phthalic acid, which is major metabolite in the biodegradation of phthalate esters, was used. Phthalic acid 50 ppm was treated in culture medium with Polyporus brumalis. The availability of ABTS oxidation was different from control and phthalic acid treated group after 4 days of incubation. The activity was gradually increased in control group, but not in phthalic acid treated group. Especially, esterase activity of control group was maximized at 10 days of incubation, and then decreased while the activity of phthalic acid treated group was increased. Glucose was used as a carbon source, and the difference of glucose consumption by control and phthalic acid treated group was not significant. However, after 6 days of incubation the residual glucose in culture medium was rapidly decreased. The consumption rate of phthalic acid treated group was lower than control. These results might indicate that the absorption of phthalic acid in culture medium was occurred by mycelium and metabolized through some pathways as that of glucose was. To clearify the chemical modification of phthalic acid in culture medium, phthalic acid was reacted under in vitro condition which mycelium was excluded. The metabolites were analyzed by GC/MS. The results showed that phthalic acid was converted to phthalic acid anhydride by the extracellular enzymes of P. brumalis.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 2014

Deoxynivalenol (DON) and related trichothecene mycotoxins are extensively distributed in the cereal-based food and feed stuffs worldwide. Recent climate changes and global grain trade increased chance of exposure to more DON and related toxic metabolites in poorly managed production systems. Monitoring the biological and environmental exposures to the toxins are crucial in protecting human and animals from toxicities of the hazardous contaminants in food or feeds. Exposure biomarkers including urine DON itself are prone to shift to less harmful metabolites by intestinal microbiota and liver metabolic enzymes. De-epoxyfication of DON by gut microbes such as Eubacterium strain BBSH 797 and Eubacterium sp. DSM 11798 leads to more fecal secretion of DOM-1. By contrast, most of plant-derived DON-glucoside is also easily catabolized to free DON by gut microbes, which produces more burden to body. Phase 2 hepatic metabolism also contributes to the glucuronidation of DON, which can be useful urine biomarkers. However, chemical modification could be very typical depending on the anthropologic or genetic background, luminal bacteria, and hepatic metabolic enzyme susceptibility to the toxins in the diet. After toxin exposure, effect biomarkers are also important in estimating the linkage and mechanisms of foodborne diseases in human and animal population. Most prominent adverse effects are demonstrated in the DON-induced immunological and behavioral disorders. For instance, acutely elevated interleukin-8 from insulted gut exposed to dietaty DON is a dominant clinical biomarker in human and animals. Moreover, subchronic exposure to the toxins is associated with high levels of serum IgA, a biological mediator of IgA nephritis. In particular, anorexia monitoring using mouse models are recently developed to monitor the biological activities of DON-induced feed refusal. It is also mechanistically linked to alteration of serotoin and peptide YY, which are promising biomarkers of neurological disorders by the toxins. As animal-alternative biomonitoring, huamn enterocyte-based assay has been developed and more realistic gut mimetic models would be useful in monitoring the effect biomarkers in resposne to toxic contaminants in the future investigations.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.679-687
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• 2020

In this study, poly(ether-block-amide) (PEBAX)/zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8)-polyetherimide (PEI), and PEBAX/amine-modified ZIF-8 (amineZIF-8)-PEI composite membranes were prepared by varying the contents of ZIF-8 and amineZIF-8. Also the gas permeability properties of N2 and CO2 were investigated for each composite membrane. The N2 and CO2 permeability of the PEBAX/ZIF-8-PEI composite membrane increased as the ZIF-8 content increased, while the CO2/N2 selectivity gradually decreased. In the case of the PEBAX/amineZIF-8-PEI composite membrane, the permeability of N2 decreased slightly, and CO2 increased till amineZIF-8 amount was 0.5 wt% and then decreased when the content increased further. The CO2/N2 selectivity was the highest with a value of 78.3 at 0.5 wt% of amineZIF-8. because the amine modification in the amineZIF-8 improves the compatibility between PEBAX and amineZIF-8, It seems that amineZIF-8 was evenly dispersed in PEBAX, which could be greatly influenced by the porousity of ZIF-8 and also the affinity of amine toward CO2.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.49-61
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• 2021

Integrated mite management provided a basic direction to early the fruit tree IPM. The early IPM concept was based on incorporation of the biological control for mite pests with the existing chemical control compatibly. Since then, the hypotheses and mechanisms of the interaction between species diversity and pest population dynamics have provided a broader understanding of mite-centered pest management in fruit tree ecosystems. Based on the principle of the ecosystem, biological control and pest management through habitat modification or manipulation are developing to the concept of agro-ecological engineering. In particular, the natural enemy diversity is dynamically changed according to the different cultivation environment in the management of mite pests, and the species composition of phytophagous mites is also changed by the environment for orchard management. This paper reviews the biological control of mites, which was the basis of apple IPM, and also re-examines the topics of species diversity and pest management, predacious mite diversity in relation to mite control and the change of species composition of mite pests in the sight of ecological engineering. Finally, we suggest a strategy for biological control of spider mites in apple orchards in Korea.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.605-616
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• 2022

We prepared two samples of ultrafine ferrihydrite (FH) nanoparticle ensembles of quite a different origin. First is the biosynthesized sample (as a product of the vital activity of bacteria Klebsiella oxytoca (hereinafter marked as FH-bact) with a natural organic coating and negligible magnetic interparticle interactions. And the second one is the chemically synthesized ferrihydrite (hereinafter FH-chem) without any coating and high level of the interparticle interactions. The interparticle magnetic interactions have been tuned by modifying the nanoparticle surface in both samples. The coating of the FH-bact sample has been partially removed by annealing at 150℃ for 24 h (hereinafter FH-annealed). The FH-chem sample, vice versa, has been coated (1.0 g) with biocompatible polysaccharide (arabinogalactan) in an ultrasonic bath for 10 min (hereinafter FH-coated). The changes in the surface properties of nanoparticles have been controlled by XPS. According to the electron microscopy data, the modification of the nanoparticle surface does not drastically change the particle shape and size. A change in the average nanoparticle size in sample FH-annealed to 3.3 nm relative to the value in the other samples (2.6 nm) has only been observed. The estimated particle coating thickness is about 0.2-0.3 nm for samples FH-bact and FH-coated and 0.1 nm for sample FH-annealed. Mössbauer and magnetization measurements are definitely shown that the drastic change in the blocking temperature is caused by the interparticle interactions. The experimental temperature dependences of the hyperfine field hf>(T) for samples FH-bact and FH-coated have not revealed the effect of interparticle interactions. Otherwise, the interparticle interaction energy E_int estimated from the hf>(T) for samples FH-chem and FH-annealed has been found to be 121k_B and 259k_B, respectively.