• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.95-111
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• 2013

Worldwide there is concern about the continuing release of a broad range of environmental endocrine disrupting chemicals, including polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, phthalates, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and other halogenated organochlorines persistent organic pollutants (POPs) into the environment. They are condemned for health adverse effects such as cancer, reproductive defects, neurobehavioral abnormalities, endocrine and immunological toxicity. These effects can be elicited via a number of mechanisms among others include disruption of endocrine system, oxidation stress and epigenetic. However, most of the mechanisms are not clear, thus several number of studies are ongoing trying to elucidate them in order to protect the public by reducing these adverse effects. In this review, we briefly limited review the process, the impacts, and the potential mechanisms of dioxin/dioxin like compound, particularly, their possible roles in adverse developmental and reproductive processes, diseases, and gene expression and associated molecular pathways in cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.835-842
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• 2014

Haloperoxidase (HPO, E.C.1.11.1.7) is a metal-containing enzyme oxidizing halonium species, which can be used in the synthesis of halogenated organic compounds, for instance in the production of antimicrobial agents, cosmetics, etc., in the presence of halides and $H_2O_2$. To isolate and evaluate a novel non-metal HPO using a culture-independent method, a cassette PCR library was constructed from marine seawater in Japan. We first isolated a novel HPO gene from Pseudomonas putida ATCC11172 by PCR for constructing the chimeric HPO library (HPO11172). HPO11172 showed each single open-reading frame of 828 base pairs coding for 276 amino acids, respectively, and showed 87% similarity with P. putida IF-3 sequences. Approximately 600 transformants screened for chimeric genes between P. putida ATCC11173 and HPO central fragments were able to identify 113 active clones. Among them, we finally isolated 20 novel HPO genes. Sequence analyses of the obtained 20 clones showed higher homology genes with P. putida or Sinorhizobium or Streptomyces strains. Although the HPO A9 clone showed the lowest homology with HPO11172, clones in group B, including CS19, showed a relatively higher homology of 80%, with 70% identy. E. coli cells expressing these HPO chimeric genes were able to successfully bioconvert chlorodimedone with KBr or KCl as substrate.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2018

Organoboron compounds and their derivatives are synthetically versatile building blocks because they are readily available, stable, and highly useful for potential organic transformations. Arylboronic esters are of particular interest due to their well-established synthetic methods: transition metal catalyzed borylations of aryl halides. However, the use of aryl halides as an electrophile has one serious disadvantage: formation of toxic halogenated byproducts. A promising alternative substrate to aryl halides would be phenol derivatives such as aryl ethers, esters, carbamates and sulfonates. The phenol derivatives involve several advantages: their abundance, relatively low toxicity and versatile synthetic application. However, utilization of the aryl methyl ether, which is one of the simplest phenol derivatives, remains as a challenge, as C-OMe bond activation requires high activation energy and methoxides are not good leaving groups. Nevertheless, there have been a significant recent progress on ipso-borylation of aryl methyl ether including Martin's nickel catalysis. Here, we review the current advance on the borylation of carbon-oxygen bonds of unactivated C-OMe bond in aromatic compounds.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.135-143
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• 2016

Biogas is a renewable fuel from anaerobic digestion of organic matters such as sewage sludge, manure and food waste. Raw biogas consists mainly of methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and water. Biogas may also contain other impurities such as siloxanes, halogenated hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons. Efficient power technologies such as fuel cell demand ultra-low concentration of containments in the biogas feed, imposing stringent requirements on fuel purification technology. Biogas is upgraded from pressure swing adsorption after biogas purification process which consists of water, $H_2S$ and siloxane removal. A polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell power plant is designed to operate on reformate produced from upgraded biogas by steam reformer.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.553-556
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• 2006

A cis-1,2-dichloroethylene (cis-DCE)-degrading anaerobic bacterium, Clostridium sp. strain KYT-1, was isolated from a sediment sample collected from a landfill site in Nanji-do, Seoul, Korea. The KYT-1 strain is a gram-positive, endospore-forming, motile, rod-shaped anaerobic bacterium, of approximately $2.5{\sim}3.0\;{\mu}m$ in length. The degradation of cis-DCE is closely related with the growth of the KYT-1 strain, and it was stopped when the growth of the KYT-1 strain became constant. Although the pathway of cis-DCE degradation by strain KYT-1 remains to be further elucidated, no accumulation of the harmful intermediate, vinyl chloride (VC), was observed during anaerobic cis-DCE degradation. Strain KYT-1 proved able to degrade a variety of volatile organic compounds, including VC, isomers of DCE (1,1-dichloroethylene, trans-1,2-dichloroethylene, and cis-DCE), trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, 1,2-dichloroethane, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, and 1,1,2-trichloroethane. Strain KYT-1 degraded cis-DCE at a range of temperatures from $15\;to\;37^{\circ}C$, with an optimum at $30^{\circ}C$, and at a pH range of 5.5 to 8.5, with an optimum at 7.0.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Railway
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.182-187
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• 2008

The environmental significance of indoor air quality is gaining more attention. Especially, the contamination of indoor air by volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) has become a serious environmental concern. We investigated the VOCs emissions from some interior materials used in the conventional railway passenger cabin. The seat cover and the flooring of cabins were used as testing materials, and they were put in a clean environmental chamber. The temperature and relative humidity was kept at $25{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ and $50{\pm}5%$, respectively. It was found that these interior materials emitted significant amount of VOCs under constantly ventilated condition. The flooring emitted more halogenated VOCs than the seat cover, because it is made of PVC, which contains many chlorine atoms. However, the emission gradually decreased over time. Because the VOCs emission from interior materials may threaten the health of passengers in the cabin, interior materials emitting less VOCs should be used.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2012

This study investigated the characteristics of selected volatile organic compounds(VOCs) in newly-finished residential buildings, before the occupants moved in. This investigation was carried out by measuring the indoor and outdoor concentrations of selected VOCs before the occupants moved in and by utilizing an indoor mass balance model. Among 25 target VOCs, five aromatics(benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, m,p-xylene, and o-xylene) were detected in all samples of both indoor and outdoor air. Toluene was most abundant VOC in the indoor air of new apartments, with a median value of 168 mg $m^{-3}$. Unlike other VOCs, halogenated compounds would not be significantly emitted from building materials. The indoor air concentrations of all selected VOCs, except for 1,3,5-trimethyl benzene, exhibited significant correlations each other, while for outdoor air concentrations, five aromatics only were significantly correlated between them. The emission rate of toluene was higher for the current study(median value, 76.8 mg $m^{-2}\;h^{-1}$) than for a previous study, while the emission rates of limonene, a-pinene and b-pinene(geometric means of 2.4, 13.8 and 9.6 mg $m^{-2}\;h^{-1}$, respectively) were lower and the emission rates of m,p-xylene and 2-butanone(geometric means of 10.9 and 21.3 mg $m^{-2}\;h^{-1}$, respectively) were similar. Although there were a few exceptions, the emission strengths are likely proportional to indoor temperature, and appear to reversely proportional to air exchange rate.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.477-491
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• 2014

This study was carried out to evaluate the concentration variations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the office environments located in a large urban area with respect to seasonality, smoking status, types of ventilation and heating. Indoor air sampling was undertaken in 37 and 30 offices in Daegu city during summer and winter, respectively. The VOC samples were collected using adsorbent tubes, and were determined by thermal desorption coupled with GC/MS analysis. The analytical method was validated for repeatability, method detection limits (MDL), and duplication precision. A total of 34 VOCs of environmental concern were determined, including 15 aromatics and 19 halogenated hydrocarbons. Average concentrations of BTEX appeared to 1.91 ppb, 22.98 ppb, 3.44 ppb, and 3.70 ppb, respectively. These values were relatively higher levels than those measured at homes and outdoor roadsides reported by other researches. In general, the concentrations of VOCs were higher in winter than summer, in smoking offices than non-smoking offices, in forced ventilation type than natural ventilation type, and in combustion heating than non-combustion heating offices. However, such differences were not always significant at a level of 0.05 by statistical tests (t-test and/or Mann-Whitney test) with some exceptions for BTEX and styrene. This study demonstrated that smoking status, ventilation type and presence of combustion sources indoors could be important factors on the elevated concentrations of some VOCs in the office environment.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.77-85
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• 2022

Environmental contamination by organic compounds are not only restricted to water, but extends to soil and groundwater as well. However, highly oxidized compounds, such as halogenated organics and nitro-compounds, can be detoxified employing reducing methods. Permeable reactive barrier is one of the representative technologies where zero-valent metals (ZVMs) are employed for groundwater remediation. However, organics contaminates often contaminate the unsaturated zone above the groundwater. Despite the availability of technologies like soil vapor extraction and bioremediation, removing organic compounds from this zone represents several challenges. In this study, the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline was achieved using zero-valent iron (ZVI) under unsaturated conditions. Results indicated that the water content was an important variable in this reaction. Under dry conditions (water content = 0.2%), the reduction reaction was inhibited; however, when the water content was between 10% and 25% (saturated condition), ZVI can reduce nitrobenzene. Palladized iron (Pd/Fe) can be used to reduce nitrobenzene when the water content is between 2.5% and 10%. The reaction was evaluated over a wide range of temperatures (10 - 40 ℃), and the results indicated that increasing the temperature resulted in increased reaction rates under unsaturated conditions.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.393-405
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• 2018

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are representative air pollutants due to their detrimental effects on human health and their role in formation of secondary organic aerosols. Assessments and monitoring programs of VOCs using periodic grab sampling like Tedlar bags, canisters, and sorbent traps provide limited information, often with delay times of days or weeks. Selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) is an emerging analytical technique for the real-time quantification of VOCs in air. It relies on chemical ionization of the VOCs molecules in air introduced into helium carrier gas using $H_3O^+$, $NO^+$, and $O_2{^+}$ precursor ions. Real-time monitoring method of 60 VOCs in the ambient air was developed using TO-15 standard gas mixture. Calibration curves, method detection limit, and quantitation reproducibility of the target compounds were tested. Dynamic dilution system was used to dilute standard gas from 0.174 ppbv to 100 ppbv, where calibration curves showed good linearity with $r^2$> 0.95 in all target analytes. Limit of detection (LOD) all compounds were sub ppbv, and some halogenated compounds showed pptv levels. Seven consecutive analyses of target compounds showed good repeatability with relative standard deviation of less than 10%. One day monitoring of VOCs in ambient air was conducted in Geoje. Average concentration of target VOCs in Geoje were relatively lower than other regions, among which formaldehyde showed the highest concentration ($15.4{\pm}5.78ppbv$). SIFT-MS provided good temporal resolution data (1 data per 3.2 minute), which can be used for identifying ephemeral short-term event. It is expected that SIFT-MS will be a versatile monitoring platform for VOCs in ambient air.