• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.362-372
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• 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 Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.755-764
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• 2016

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) processes can be implemented on a number of water types, using different technologies and achieving various power outcomes. In this study, Sewage facility effluent was used for feed solution of PRO and synthetic NaCl water for draw solution. This study was conducted to investigate effect of water quality of pretreatment on power density and flux decline in PRO process. The results show that organic and particulate foulants have to be removed for more stable operation. Flourescence technique with EEM enables to investigate the chemical properties of aquatic organic matter by extracting spectral information. Humic/fulvic matters and soluble microbial by-products were analyzed as the most affecting factors on the PRO performance. As a result of analyzing the whole system based on the energy consumption of the unit process, specific energy consumption(SEC) of the applicable technology for PRO pre-treatment should be about $0.2kWh/m^3$ or less.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.555-563
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to confirm the quality characteristics of distilled soju with different rice pretreatment processes. The non-steamed fermentation method is a technology that uses starch to produce saccharification and alcohol without going through the steaming of raw materials. It has advantages such as reduction of manpower and cost, prevention of nutrient loss, and minimization of waste water. In this study, rice used were non-steamed and pulverized 'Baromi2', nonsteamed and steamed 'Samgwang', and puffed rice. As the fermenting agent, koji, modified nuruk, N9 yeast, and purified enzyme were used, and lactic acid was added to prevent contamination during fermentation. The amount of water was 300% in total, and after the first watering, 5 days after fermentation, the second watering was carried out. As a result of the study, it was confirmed that the non-steamed fermentation method using 'Baromi' was superior to the existing fermentation method in terms of temperature during fermentation, final alcohol content, soluble solids, and pH. By expanding the stability of the production technology of non-steamed fermentation technology, product quality improvement can be expected.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.77-88
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• 2010

The grain size characteristics of the Asian Dust(AD) in Seoul during the spring 2010 are analyzed by the different pretreatment procedures. The mean values of the AD samples by the minimal dispersion are 19~56㎛ and the NAD(Non-Asian Dust) samples are 37~92㎛. Contrastively, the mean values of AD and NAD samples by the ultimate dispersion are 13~20㎛ and 14~30㎛, respectively. It is revealed that the particles less than approximately 20㎛ and 40㎛ by the minimal and ultimate dispersion, respectively, are introduced into the atmosphere in the Korean Peninsular by the AD events with the peaks of approximately 0.5㎛, 1.5㎛ and 8.5㎛ by the minimal dispersion, and 0.5㎛ and 7.5㎛ by the ultimate dispersion. Also, the charateristics of AD samples showing similar grain size characteristics to the loess samples rather than the NAD samples indicates long distance origin from China so on. The differences of grain size characteristics between the AD and loess samples may result in duration and intensity of weathering processes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.613-619
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• 2006

The objectives of this research are to evaluate the effect of membrane materials, particulate matter and membrane pore size on permeate flux. It was shown that the removal efficiency of high MW organic matter more than 10 kDa was lower than that of low MW organic matter for $MIEX^{(R)}$ process. For the change of permeate flux by the pretreatment process, $MIEX^{(R)}+UF$ process showed high removal efficiency of organic matter as compared with coagulation+UF processes, but high reduction rate of permeate flux was presented through the reduction of removal efficiency of high MW organic matter. The pretreatment of the raw water significantly reduced the fouling of the hydrophilic membrane, but did not decrease the flux reduction of the hydrophobic membrane. Flux decline on MF process increased due to the pore clogging, while the permeate flux decline of UF process decreased due to the formation of cake layer. It was shown that particle matter was not effect on MIEX+membrane process. But, for coagulation+membrane process, particle matter was important factor on permeate flux.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.149-156
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• 2011

Golgi SNAP receptor complex 1 (GS28) has been implicated in vesicular transport between intra-Golgi networks and between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi. Additional role(s) of GS28 within cells have not been well characterized. We observed decreased expression of GS28 in rat ischemic hippocampus. In this study, we examined the role of GS28 and its molecular mechanisms in neuronal (SK-N-SH) cell death induced by hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$). GS28 siRNA-transfected cells treated with $H_2O_2$ showed a significant increase in cytotoxicity under glutathione (GSH)-depleted conditions after pretreatment with buthionine sulfoximine, which corresponded to an increase of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the cells. Pretreatment of GS28 siRNA-transfected cells with p38 chemical inhibitor significantly inhibited cytotoxicity; we also observed that p38 was activated in the cells by immunoblot analysis. We confirmed the role of p38 MAPK in cotransfected cells with GS28 siRNA and p38 siRNA in the cell viability assay, flow cytometry, and immunoblot. Involvement of apoptotic or autophagic processes in the cells was not shown in the cell viability, flow cytometry, and immunoblot analyses. However, pretreatment of the cells with necrostatin-1 completely inhibited $H_2O_2$-induced cytotoxicity, ROS generation, and p38 activation, indicating that the cell death is necroptotic. Collectively these data imply that $H_2O_2$ induces necroptotic cell death in the GS28 siRNA-transfected cells and that the necroptotic signals are mediated by sequential activations in RIP1/p38/ROS. Taken together, these results indicate that GS28 has a protective role in $H_2O_2$-induced necroptosis via inhibition of p38 MAPK in GSH-depleted neuronal cells.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 2024

To develop flexible electrode materials for wearable devices, we investigated the electrochemical characteristics of carbon fibers tow according to pretreatment. And an electrochemical non-enzymatic sensor was fabricated using glucose as a target. The carbon fibers tow was pretreated through desizing and activation processes, and activation was performed in two ways: chemical oxidation and electrochemical oxidation. Surface morphology of carbon fibers tow samples was observed by SEM and their electrochemical characteristics and sensing performance were investigated by cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and chronoamperometry. Carbon fibers tow samples showed improved electrochemical properties such as reduced R_et, ΔE_p, and increased I_p through pretreatment. And similar electrochemical properties were obtained with both activation methods. We selected electrochemically activated carbon fibers tow as the final electrode material for application of electrochemical sensor. The non-enzymatic glucose sensor based on this electrode has an enhanced sensitivity of 0.744 A/mM (in a linear range of 0.09899~3.75423 mM) and 0.330 mA/mM (3.75423~50 mM), respectively. Through this study, the possibility of using carbon fibers tow was confirmed as an electrode material. It is expected to be used as basic research for development of high-performance flexible electrode materials.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.598-607
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• 2004

In this study, the effects of two pre-treatment processes were observed prior to membrane filtration: pre-coagulation and pre-ozonation. To compare the effect of two above-mentioned pre-treatments, we adopted the four schemes: first one is direct membrane filtration of river surface water, second one is membrane filtration after pre-coagulation, third one is membrane filtration after pre-ozonation and fourth one is membrane filtration after pre-coagulation and pre-ozonation. There are two exceptional characteristics in applied processes. One is the usage of the MF membrane which has high ozone resisting characteristic. Therefore, ozone resides in membrane module during filtration. The other is adoption of Jet Mixed Separator (JMS) as coagulation-sedimentation process. The change in transmembrane pressure and permeate water quality were also examined. As a result, considering the filtration performance efficiency and permeate water quality, the process composed of filtration with combination of both pre-coagulation and pre-ozonation was proved most effective. The improved efficiency was due to the reduction of loading rate of fouling inducing materials to membrane module by coagulation process as well as variable reactions, such as degradation, particle destabilization and coagulation, occurred by residual ozone in membrane module. The additional effect of pre-coagulation before pre-ozonation is suppression of AOC, one of the by-products induced by ozonation. Therefore, combination of pre-coagulation and pre-ozonation is the effective process to overcome the major de-merit of ozonation i.e. by-products formation.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.57-61
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• 2012

The matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family is involved in the breakdown of the extracellular matrix during normal physiological processes such as embryonic development, reproduction, and tissue remodeling, as well as in disease processes such as pathological aging, arthritis, and metastasis. Oxidative conditions generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) (e.g., hydrogen peroxide [$H_2O_2$]) in cells, which subsequently induce the synthesis of matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1). MMP-1, an interstitial collagenase, in turn stimulates an aging phenomenon. In this study, baicalein (5,6,7-trihydroxyfl avone) was investigated for its in vitro activity against $H_2O_2$-induced damage using a human skin keratinocyte model. Baicalein pretreatment signifi cantly inhibited $H_2O_2$-induced up-regulation of MMP-1 mRNA, MMP-1 protein expression and MMP-1 activity in cultured HaCaT keratinocytes. In addition, baicalein decreased the transcriptional activity of activator protein-1 (AP-1) and the expression of c-Fos and c-Jun, both components of the heterodimeric AP-1 transcription factor. Furthermore, baicalein reduced phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and c-Jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK), which are upstream of the AP-1 transcription factor. The results of this study suggest that baicalein is involved in the inhibition of oxidative stress-induced expression of MMP-1 via inactivation of the ERK/JNK/AP-1 signaling pathway.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.192-198
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• 2009

Banhabaikchulcheunma-tang (BBCT), a prescription composed of thirteen herbal mixtures, has been widely used in the treatment of brain disorders in Oriental Medicine. However, the mechanisms by which the formula affects on the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in cerebral infarction (CI) patients remain unknown yet. The levels of secretory protein of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a, interlukin (IL)-1b, and IL-6, were significantly increased in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated THP-1 differentiated macrophage-like (THP-1/M) cells and Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from CI patients. However, pretreatment with BBCT significantly inhibited the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-a, IL-1b, and IL-6, in THP-1/M cells and PBMCs from CI patients with stimulus. Thus, these data indicate that BBCT may be beneficial in the cessation of inflammatory processes of cerebral infarction through suppression on the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.