• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.194-199
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• 2008

In this study, the effective method to esterify the free fatty acids in jatropha oil was examined. Compared to other plant oils, the acid value of jatropha oil was remarkably high, 11.5 mgKOH/g. So direct transesterification by a base catalyst was not suitable for the oil. After the free fatty acids were esterified with methanol, jatropha oil was transesterified. The activities of four solid acid catalysts were tested and Amberlyst-15 showed the best activity for the esterification. After constructing the experiment matrix based on RSM and analyzing the statistical data, the optimal esterification conditions were determined to be 6.79% of methanol and 17.14% of Amberlyst-15. After the pretreatment, jatropha biodiesel was produced by the transesterification using KOH in a pressurized batch reactor. Jatropha biodiesel produced could meet the major specifications of Korean biodiesel standards; 97.35% of FAME, 8.17 h of oxidation stability, 0.125% of total glycerol and $0^{\circ}C$ of CFPP.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.405-412
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• 2009

The purpose of this study investigated the effect of Au coating on adhesion between porcelain matrix and metal substructure interface. Titanium, Ni-Cr alloy and Co-Cr alloy are well known as proper metal for the dental restorations. The success of a porcelain fused to metal (PFM) restoration depends upon the quality of the porcelain-metal bond. However, adhesion between dental alloys and porcelain is related to diffusion of oxygen during ceramic firing. The excessive oxidized layers make hard adhesion between dental alloy and ceramic. Ni-Cr and Co-Cr specimens were divided into test and a control group and Titanium specimens were divided into three test groups and a control group. Each group had 20 specimens. The adhesion characteristics of porcelain and metal with Au coating layer and without Au coating layer were observed with scanning electron microscopy(SEM). The adhesion was evaluated by a biaxial flexure test and volume fraction of adherent porcelain was determined by SEM/EDS analysis. Result of this study suggest that Au coating layer is effective barrier to diffuse oxide layer completely protect non-precious alloys from oxidation during the porcelain firing. The SEM photomicrographs of cross-section specimens showed a smooth interface between Au coating layer and metals and porcelain which suggested proper chemical bonding, and no gap, porosity were observed. The mode of failure was mainly adhesive for Ti tested specimens, but mixed failures with adhesive and cohesive were observed in Ni-Cr and Co-Cr specimens. The adhesion between non-precious metals and porcelain would not be improved by Au coating agent. However, It is suggested that the continuous study is required further investigation and development.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.2419-2424
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• 2013

Guanosine-5'-diphosphate 3'-diphosphate (ppGpp) serves as alarmone in bacterial stringent responses. In this study, an affinity column was constructed by immobilizing ppGpp to NHS-Sepharose for isolating ppGpp-binding proteins. A novel ppGpp-binding protein, YjgA, was isolated and characterized by MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry) coupled with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. YjgA and truncated forms of YjgA were cloned and over-expressed in BL21 (DE3). The binding affinity of YjgA to ppGpp was determined by equilibrium dialysis. The interaction of YjgA with ppGpp was very specific, considering that the dissociation constant of YjgA with ppGpp was measured as $5.2{\pm}2.0{\mu}M$, while the affinities to GTP and GDP were about 60 and 30 times weaker than ppGpp. Expression of yjgA gene in Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 was examined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RT-PCR results revealed that yjgA was expressed from early to late stationary phase. The yjgA deletion mutant exhibited decreased cell number at stationary phase compared to parent strain and the over-expression of YjgA increased the cell number. These results suggested that YjgA might stimulate cell division under stationary phase. In most prokaryotic genome, about half of the protein candidates are hypothetical, that are expected to be expressed but there is no experimental report on their functions. The approach utilized in this study may serve as an effective mean to probe the functions of hypothetical proteins.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.518-525
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• 2013

To improve the mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP) biocomposites reinforced with sulfuric acidtreated green algae (SGA), SGA/graphite nanoplatelets (GNP)/PP biocomposites were prepared and their properties were evaluated depending on the particle size and content of GNP. The flexural and impact strength of SGA/GNP/PP biocomposites decreased with the addition of GNP, whereas the flexrual and storage moduli were greatly improved with increasing GNP loading. SGA/GNP/PP biocomposites reinforced with GNP5 showed generally better mechanical properties compared to that reinforced with GNP15 mainly due to the improved dispersion of the smaller GNP. SGA/GNP/PP biocomposites reinforced with GNP5 showed a lower resistance to the thermal expansion because the relatively uniform dispersion of smaller GNP was responsible for the effective heat transfer to the polymer matrix. As a result, SGA/GNP/PP biocomposite was acceptable for the general purpose application due to the improved flexural resistance, storage moduli, and damping characteristics.

• 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 Life Science
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.673-679
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• 2016

The development of safe and effective anti-cancer compounds has been seriously required to prevent and treat development of tumor in recent years. Among them, natural compounds derived traditional medicinal stuffs have been paid to attention as an anti-cancer candidate. In this study, aesculetin is a main component of a widely known as a medicinal stuff. It was reported that aesculetin has various biological effects such as anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial, but its effect related to cell invasion was not discovered. Therefore, in this study, the effect of aesculetin on antioxidant and matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) was investigated in human fibrosarcoma cells, HT1080. First of all, aesculetin showed the scavenging activity of DPPH radical and reducing power in a dose dependent manner. As a result of cytotoxicity, the nontoxic concentration of aesculetin was below 2 μM in HT1080 cells performed by MTT assay. In addition, aesculetin displayed the inhibitory effect on MMP-9 activity related to cell invasion in experiment carried out by gelatin zymography assay. Furthermore, aesculetin increased the expression level of TIMP-1 but decreased the expression level of MMP-9 stimulated with PMA in western blot assay. Furthermore, aesculetin remarkably inhibited cell invasion related to metastasis a dose dependent manner. Above results suggest that aesculetin could exert chemopreventive effect through inhibition of activity and expression of MMP-9 related to cell invasion.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.1371-1377
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• 2012

Fibrosis in kidney by internal and external factors causes progressive loss of renal function. Renal fibrosis is the inevitable consequence of an excessive accumulation of the extracellular matrix. TGF-${\beta}$ plays an important role in the process of renal fibrosis and stimulates the synthesis of profibrotic factors, including collagens, fibronectin, and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1). We examined the effect of Moringa oleifera Lam (moringa) extracts in a rat kidney fibrosis model. We found that moringa root extract suppresses protein expression/mRNA levels of Type I collagen, fibronectin, and PAI-1 induced by TGF-${\beta}$ in renal fibroblasts. Moringa root extract selectively inhibited phosphorylation of TGF-${\beta}$-induced $T{\beta}RII$ and the downstream signaling pathway (e.g., Smad4), and phospho-ERK, but not JNK, p38, or PI3K/AKT. These results suggest that moringa root extract can act against TGF-${\beta}$-induced renal fibrosis in rat kidney fibroblast cells by a mechanism related to its antifibrotic activity, which regulates expression of fibronectin, Type I collagen, and PAI-1 through $T{\beta}RII$-Smad2/3-Smad4 and ERK. Therefore, moringa root extract is an effective substance for fibrosis therapy and provides a new therapeutic strategy for diseases associated with elevated profibrotic factor synthesis.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.438-444
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• 2019

In this study, the effect of polypropylene fiber on the freeze-thaw damage of mortar was evaluated experimentally. The effects of the reinforcing of polypropylene fiber on the compressive and bending performance of mortar after 300 cycles of freeze-thaw test were evaluated by comparing the normal mortar and the mortar with polyvinyl alcohol fiber. In addition, the mass loss, relative dynamic elastic modulus, and cumulated pore volume of mortar were measured by each cycle of freeze-thaw test. As a result, it was confirmed that the fiber reinforced mortar, regardless of the fiber type, was effective not only in maintaining the performance of the compressive strength and the bending strength but also suppressing the mass loss after the freeze-thaw test of 300 cycles. Meanwhile, it was confirmed that not only polyvinyl alcohol fibers but also polypropylene fibers can effectively act to suppress the damage of the mortar by freeze-thaw. However, in order to improve the freeze-thaw resistance of mortar mixed with polypropylene fiber, it is necessary to increase the bonding performance with the cement matrix which can be expected from polyvinyl alcohol fiber.

• Journal of KIISE:Databases
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.127-136
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• 2010

With rapid growth of information and computer communication technologies, the numbers of digital documents including multimedia data have been recently exploded. In particular, news video database and news video mining have became the subject of extensive research, to develop effective and efficient tools for manipulation and analysis of news videos, because of their information richness. However, many research focus on browsing, retrieval and summarization of news videos. Up to date, it is a relatively early state to discover and to analyse the plentiful latent semantic knowledge from news videos. In this paper, we propose the news video mining system based on multi-modal approach and text mining, which uses the visual-textual information of news video clips and their scripts. The proposed system systematically constructs a taxonomy of news video stories in automatic manner with hierarchical clustering algorithm which is one of text mining methods. Then, it multilaterally analyzes the topics of news video stories by means of time-cluster trend graph, weighted cluster growth index, and network analysis. To clarify the validity of our approach, we analyzed the news videos on "The Second Summit of South and North Korea in 2007".

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.9 no.12
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• pp.1252-1262
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• 1999

The effect of microstructures on the strength-flangeability of Nb bearing hot-rolled high strength steel was investigated in order to improve the strength-flangeability of conventional TS 580MPa grades HSLA steel for the automotive wheel disc. The low temperature coiling method using 3-step controlled cooling pattern after hot rolling was effective to produce the Nb-bearing high strength steel with the polygonal ferrite and bainite duplex microstructures. It was suggested that the suppressed precipitation of grain boundary cementites and the decreased hardness difference between ferrite matrix and bainite cause the excellent stretch-flangeability of ferrite-bainite duplex microstructure steel. Therefore, the formation and propagation of microcracks were suppressed relative to the conventional HSLA steel with ferrite and pearlite microstructure. In addition, the elongation was improved as compared with that of hot-rolled steel sheets using conventional early cooling pattern because the volume fraction of polygonal ferrite was increased.