• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.362-372
• /
• 2010

Although different disposal routes of waste-activated sludge are possible, anaerobic digestion plays an important role for its abilities to further transform organic matter into methane. The potential of using methane as energy source has long been widely recognised and the present paper extensively reviews the principles of anaerobic digestion, the process parameters and hydrolysis. Hydrolysis is recognised as rate-limiting step in the complex digestion process. To accelerate the digestion and enhance the production of biogas, various pre-treatments can be used to improve the rate-limiting hydrolysis. These treatments include mechanical, thermal, chemical and biological interventions to the feedstock. All pre-treatments result in a lysis or disintegration of sludge cells, thus releasing and solubilizing intracellular material into the water phase and transforming refractory organic material into biodegradable species. The reader will finally be guided to extensive discussion for anaerobic digestion processes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.473-482
• /
• 2013

The desulfurization ability of Sphingomonas subarctica T7b was evaluated using resting and immobilized cells with dibenzothiophene (DBT), alkyl DBTs, and commercial light gas oil (LGO) as the substrates. The resting cells of S. subarctica T7b degraded 239.2 mg of the initial 250 mg of DBT/l (1.36 mM) within 24 h at $27^{\circ}C$, while 127.5 mg of 2-hydroxybiphenyl (2-HBP)/l (0.75 mM) was formed, representing a 55% conversion of the DBT. The DBT desulfurization activity was significantly affected by the aqueous-to-oil phase ratio. In addition, the resting cells of S. subarctica T7b were able to desulfurize alkyl DBTs with long alkyl chains, although the desulfurization rate decreased with an increase in the total carbon number of the alkylated DBTs. LGO with a total sulfur content of 280 mg/l was desulfurized to 152 mg/l after 24 h of reaction. Cells immobilized by entrapment with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) exhibited a high DBT desulfurization activity, including repeated use for more than 8 batch cycles without loss of biodesulfurization activity. The stability of the immobilized cells was better than that of the resting cells at different initial pHs, higher temperatures, and for DBT biodesulfurization in successive degradation cycles. The immobilized cells were also easily separated from the oil and water phases, giving this method great potential for oil biodesulfurization.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.23 no.8
• /
• pp.1139-1143
• /
• 2002

Analysis of lysophosphatidic acids (LPAs) is of clinical importance as they can serve a potential marker for ovarian and other gynecological cancers and obesity. It is critically important to develop a highly sensitive and specific method for the early detection of gynecological cancers to improve the overall outcome of this disease. We have established a novel quantification method of LPAs in human plasma by negative ionization tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS) using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode without the conventional TLC step. Protein-bound lipids, LPAs in plasma were extracted with methanol : chloroform (2:1) containing LPA C14:0 as an internal standard under acidic condition. Following back extraction with chloroform and water, the centrifuged lower phase was evaporated and reconstituted in methanol. The reconstituted solution was directly injected into electrospray source of MS/MS. For MRM mode, Q1 ions selected were m/z 409, 433, 435, 437 and 457 which corresponds to molecular mass [M-H]- of C16:0, C18:2, C18:1, C18:0 and C20:4 LPA, respectively. Q2 ions selected for MRM were m/z 79, phosphoryl product. Using MS/MS with MRM mode, all the species of LPAs were completely separated from plasma matrix without severe interferences. This method allowed simultaneous detection and quantification of different species of LPAs in a plasma over a linear dynamic range of 0.01-25 ㎛olL-1 . The detection limit of the method was 0.3 pmol/mL, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9983 in most LPAs analyzed. When applied to the plasmas of normal and gynecological cancer patients, this new method differentiated two different groups by way of total LPA level.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.69-76
• /
• 2010

The majority of research that has been performed on cracking potential of concrete by shrinkage has assumed that concrete acts as a homogeneous material. However, with this approach, it is not able to evaluate the micro-cracking behavior in concrete due to autogenous shrinkage under unrestrained boundary condition (free boundary condition) nor to understand the cracking behavior properly because of the heterogeneous nature of concrete. To better understand the micro-cracking behavior of concrete induced by autogenous shrinkage, series of experiments were performed measuring the length change and acoustic emission energy. As an analytical approach, this research uses an object oriented finite element analysis code (OOF code) to simulate the behavior of the concrete on a meso-scale. The concrete images used in the simulations were directly obtained from mortar samples. From the experiments and simulation results, it was able to better understand the micro-cracking behaviour of concrete due to shrinking of paste phase and internal restraint by aggregates.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.85-91
• /
• 2010

We have studied the origin of an additional plateau of $Li_{4+x}Ti_5O_{12}$ (LTO) observed at 0.7 V (vs. Li/$Li^+$). Some LTO has to be discharged down to below 1.0 V forming two-stage plateau (1.5 V and 0.7 V) in order to obtain most of capacity while others could achieve the same level of capacity at higher potential (1.0 V vs. Li/$Li^+$) forming one plateau (1.5 V). The particle size effect has been investigated as a possible reason of this. The 0.7 V plateau was gradually elongated with increasing the particle size. The structural variations and kinetic behaviors during discharge were carefully examined by in-situ XRD technique and OCV measurement. According to structural and electrochemical verifications, the kinetic limitation of $Li^+$ insertion is responsible primarily for the two-stage plateau which is related to the particle size of LTO rather than the formation of new intermediate phase during discharge. Herein, we propose a possible reaction model to elucidate this abnormal behavior of LTO below 1.0 V (Li/$Li^+$).

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.494-498
• /
• 2007

Pleiotrophin or osteoblast-specific factor 1(HOSF-1) is a growth-associated protein present in bone matrix. This study was designed to study pleiotrophin expression in osteoblastic cells. Pleiotrophin was expressed by osteoblast-like cell line. Pleiotrophin expression increased following the proliferative phase and was minimal at the terminal phases of the induced differentiation of cultured MC3T3-E1 cells. Pleiotrophin expression represents another autocrine factor that may contribute to the physiologic control of induced bone formation. In this study, induced osteogenesis will be examined in the context of the osteoblast expression of and regulation by PTN. I hypothesized that PDGF-BB stimulation of PTN expression represents an important paracrine signal during the induced osteogenesis associated with periodontal and implant surgeries. The possible mediation by PTN of anabolic effects attributed to PDGF-BB stimulation was examined in cell culture models of osteoblast differentiation. These studies will contribute fundamental insights to osteoblast biology and insights regarding the potential use of factors such as PTN in the clinical environment.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.148-153
• /
• 2009

Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) is one of most widely used methods in modem engineering system to investigate potential failure modes and its severity upon the system. FMECA evaluates criticality and severity of each failure mode and visualize the risk level matrix putting those indices to column and row variable respectably. Generally, those indices are determined subjectively by experts and operators. However, this process has no choice but to include uncertainty. In this paper, a method for eliciting expert opinions considering its uncertainty is proposed to evaluate the criticality and severity. In addition, a fuzzy expert system is constructed in order to determine the crisp value of risk level for each failure mode. Finally, an illustrative example system is analyzed in the case study. The results are worth considering while deciding the proper policies for each component of the system.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.56 no.5
• /
• pp.711-717
• /
• 2018

Human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) can stimulate the division of various cell types and has potential clinical applications. Since the protein contains three intra-molecular disulfide bonds, the high expression of active hEGF in Escherichia coli has not been well researched, We fused the hEGF gene with a small ubiquitin-related modifier gene (SUMO) by synthesizing an artificial SUMO-hEGF fusion gene that was highly expressed in E. coli (DE3) strain. The optimal expression level of the soluble fusion protein, SUMO-hEGF with IPTG (Isopropyl-${\beta}$-D-Thiogalactopyranoside), was up to 38.9% of the total cellular protein. The fusion protein was purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography and cleaved by a SUMO-specific protease to obtain the native hEGF, which was further purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. The result of the reverse-phase HPLC showed that the purity of the recombinant cleaved hEGF was greater than 98%.

• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.11 no.6
• /
• pp.642-648
• /
• 1996

The effects of EDTA(Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid), Cu, temperature, and gas(methane and oxygen) composition on methanol production from methane with Methylosinus trichosporium were investigated. In this experiment EDTA was found to be a potential methanol dehydrogenase inhibitor since it causes methanol accumulation and 6mM was found to be optimum concentration of EDTA for methanol production. When Cu was added in culture media, the produced methanol concentration level was increased. Hence it is believed that Cu enhanced the particulate methane monooxygenase formation and consequently the addition of Cu could increase the methanol production from methane. In this experiment the optimum concentration of Cu was found to be 1mM for methanol production. When temperature was shifted down from $30^{\circ}C to 25^{\circ}C$, the methanol production level was enhanced by 50%. When the ratio of methane to oxygen in gas phase was increased to 2.3 from 1, produced methanol concentration was also enhanced by 100%.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.319-327
• /
• 2007

Incineration has been regarded as the best developed technology available for organically hazardous waste. However, permitting and siting incinerators to treat hazardous waste such as a waste containing PCBs is very difficult due to the public concerns associated with toxic air emissions. Recently, a lot of alternatives to an incineration have been developed and these technologies have the potential of alleviating public concerns by decreasing emissions of hazardous materials such as dioxins and furans. This paper reviews currently available alternative incineration technologies for various hazardous waste streams. Various categories of non-thermal and thermal alternative incineration technologies have been evaluated in terms of their process operating condition, applicability of a waste stream and their emission of secondary waste. Detailed descriptions of operating principles of several technologies are also provided.