• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5635-5641
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• 2015

Background: Cirrhosis is regarded as a possible end stage of many liver diseases, including viral infection. It occurs when healthy liver tissue becomes damaged and is replaced by scar tissue and finally may lead to hepatocellular carcinoma. Interferons (IFNs)are two general categories, type I and II. Type I includes one beta interferon and over 20 different alpha interferons. Alpha interferons are very similar in how they work, interacting with other proteins on cells like receptors. The main objective of this study was to compare Mx gene productivity post different cell line treatment with imported and Egyptian biosimilar locally produced IFNs, as well as the efficacy of those tested IFNs. Also, an assessment was made of sensitivity of different cell lines as alternatives to that recommended for evaluation of antiviral activity. Materials and Methods: Different cell lines (Vero, MDBK and Wish) were employed to evaluate cytotoxicity using the MTT assay. Antiviral activity was evaluated compared with standard IFN against VSV, Indiana strain -156, on tested rh-IFNs (imported; innovated and Egyptian biosimilar locally produced IFNs) in the pre-treated cell lines previously mentioned. The virus was propagated in the Wish cell line as recommended. Finally we estimated up-regulation of the Mx gene as a biomarker. Results: Data recorded revealed that test IFNs were safe in test cell lines. Viability was around 100%. Locally tested interferon did not realize the international potency limits, while the imported one was accepted compared with the standard IFN. These results were the same either using infectivity titer reduction assay or crystal violet staining of residual non- infected cells. Mx protein production was cell type related and confirmed by the detected Mx gene expressed in imported and locally produced IFN pre-treated cell lines. The expression of the gene was arranged in the order of Vero> wish > MDBK for the imported IFN, while for the Egyptian biosimillar locally produced one it was MDBK> Vero> wish. With regard to the antiviral activity there was a significant difference of imported IFN potency compared with the locally produced IFN (P<0.05), the IFN potential (antiviral activity) was not cell line related and showed non-significant difference for each separate product. Conclusions: Vero cells can be used as an alternative cell line for evaluation of IFN potency in case of unavailable USP recommended cell lines. Alternative potency evaluation assay could be used and proved significant difference in IFN potency in case of local and imported agents. Evaluation of antiviral activity could be used in parallel to viral infectivity reduction assay for better accuracy. Mx gene can be used as a marker for IFN potential.

• Clean Technology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.141-152
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• 2015

As environmental issues are emerging, bio-plastic suppliers in leading countries have been foreseeing the strong needs for environment-friendly materials such as eco-packing materials due to increased attention and regulation on recycle. To catch up with the demand, various types of bio-plastics based on natural feedstocks were developed and released on a market. These bio-plastic products drew the great attention even in domestic industries. At present, international oil price fluctuation and heavy charge on waste raise the unit cost of production and disposal expense of conventional plastic materials. These conditions make bio-plastic an alternative, because it is not restrained by oil prices and problem in the disposal. It is also expected that bio-plastic will be applied to various types of products including containers, industrial supplies, disposables, and medical supplies. However, the bio-plastic is still in its infancy, thus more research and understanding should be followed to put it to application. Bio-plastic is considered as environment-friendly material with high potential which has the advantages of production and disposal.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.32-42
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• 2012

Wood biomass including forest residues, waste wood, and construction residuals has been widely generated in Korea, but forest biomass from the National Forest Management Operation Project plays a big role in generating wood biomass. Unfortunately the promotion policy of woody energy organized by the Forest Service in Korea concentrates more on demand creation rather than on supply expansion. Therefore, in order to utilize insufficient wood resources effectively, it is greatly required to develop uses for maximizing their added value. In particular, more attention to the use of the second generation biomass has been paid in foreign countries because there is a threshold that the first generation biomass cannot produce enough biofuel without threatening food supplies and biodiversity. In Korea, wood pellets are regarded as the alternative clean fuels to oils and coals that emit green house gases into the atmosphere. However, using wood as pellet raw materials can not be an economic way because the value of wood disappears right after burning in the boiler in spite of its contribution to the decrease of carbon emission. Differently from wood pellets, kraft pulping process using woody biomass produces black liquor as a by-product which can be used to generate electricity, bioenergy and biochemicals through gasification. Thus, it can be more economical to make a torrefaction of lignocellulosic biomass such as low-quality wood and agricultural leftovers as raw materials of pellets.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.1349-1359
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• 2016

Alternative control schemes for an Advanced High Temperature Reactor system consisting of a reactor, an intermediate heat exchanger, and a secondary heat exchanger (SHX) are presented in this paper. One scheme is designed to control the cold outlet temperature of the SHX ($T_{co}$) and the hot outlet temperature of the intermediate heat exchanger ($T_{ho2}$) by manipulating the hot-side flow rates of the heat exchangers ($F_h/F_{h2}$) responding to the flow rate and temperature disturbances. The flow rate disturbances typically require a larger manipulation of the flow rates than temperature disturbances. An alternate strategy examines the control of the cold outlet temperature of the SHX ($T_{co}$) only, since this temperature provides the driving force for energy production in the power conversion unit or the process application. The control can be achieved by three options: (1) flow rate manipulation; (2) reactor power manipulation; or (3) a combination of the two. The first option has a quicker response but requires a large flow rate change. The second option is the slowest but does not involve any change in the flow rates of streams. The third option appears preferable as it has an intermediate response time and requires only a minimal flow rate change.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.147-153
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• 2010

The recycling of demolished concrete as an alternative source of coarse aggregates for the production of new concrete can help to solve the growing waste disposal crisis and the problem of the depletion of natural aggregates. The purpose of this study is to investigate the chloride migration of recycled aggregate concrete containing pozzolanic materials by the chloride migration coefficient. The specimens were made with recycled coarse aggregate at various replacement ratios (10, 30, 50%) and metakaolin, blast furnace slag, and fly ash is replaced for recycled concrete with a mixing ratio of 20%. The major results are as follows. 1) The compressive strength of recycled aggregate concrete containing pozzolanic materials increases as the curing age and chloride diffusivity decreases. 2) When the replacement ratio of recycled coarse aggregate is 30%, the chloride migration coefficient of recycled concrete containing blast furnace slag or metakaolin that shows a value similar to or lower than that of plain concrete at all ages.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.333-341
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• 2021

Steel slag, an industrial reject from the steel rolling process, has been identified as one of the suitable, environmentally friendly materials for concrete production. Given that the coarse aggregate portion represents about 70% of concrete constituents, other economic approaches have been found in the use of alternative materials such as steel slag in concrete. Unfortunately, a standard framework for its application is still lacking. Therefore, this study proposed functional model equations for the determination of strength properties (compression and splitting tensile) of steel slag aggregate concrete (SSAC), using gene expression programming (GEP). The study, in the experimental phase, utilized steel slag as a partial replacement of crushed rock, in steps 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%, respectively. The predictor variables included in the analysis were cement, sand, granite, steel slag, water/cement ratio, and curing regime (age). For the model development, 60-75% of the dataset was used as the training set, while the remaining data was used for testing the model. Empirical results illustrate that steel aggregate could be used up to 100% replacement of conventional aggregate, while also yielding comparable results as the latter. The GEP-based functional relations were tested statistically. The minimum absolute percentage error (MAPE), and root mean square error (RMSE) for compressive strength are 6.9 and 1.4, and 12.52 and 0.91 for the train and test datasets, respectively. With the consistency of both the training and testing datasets, the model has shown a strong capacity to predict the strength properties of SSAC. The results showed that the proposed model equations are reliably suitable for estimating SSAC strength properties. The GEP-based formula is relatively simple and useful for pre-design applications.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.123-127
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• 2016

Methanol fuel cells having advantages of relatively favorable reaction kinetics and higher energy density have attracted increasing interests as best alternative to hydrogen fuel cell because of H2 production, storage and distribution issues. While there have been extensive research works on developing key components such as electrocatalysts as well as their physicochemical properties in practical formic acid fuel cells, there have also been urgent requests for investigating which fuel sources will be more suitable for direct liquid fuel cells in future. In this mini-review, we highlight the overall interest and outlook of formic acid fuel cells in terms of electrocatalysts, fuel supply and crossover, water management, fuel cell efficiency and system integration in comparison with methanol fuel cells.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.221-229
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• 2011

Due to the increase of oil price and the environmental issue such as the emission of volatile organic compounds, the necessity for developing alternative resins of petroleum-based adhesive resins, which have extensively been used for the manufacture of wood-based products, has been speculation since the early 1990. In our study, rapeseed flour (RSF), which is the by-product of bio-diesel produced from rapeseed, were hydrolyzed by enzymes. As a crosslinking agents of the RSF hydrolyzates, phenol-formaldehyde prepolymers (PF) were prepared. The RSF hydrolyzates and PF were mixed to complete the formulation of RSF-based adhesive resins, and the resins were applied to make the laminated veneer lumber (LVL). The physical and mechanical properties of the LVL were measured to examine whether RSF can be used as raw materials of adhesive resins for the fabrication of LVL or not. The average moisture content and soaking delamination rate of the LVL bonded with RSF-based adhesive resins exceeded the minimum requirement of KS standard. Moreover, thermal analysis of the RSF-based resins showed similar tendencies except for the RSF-based adhesive resins formulated with pectinase-hydrolyzed RSF. The bending strengths of the LVL were higher than that of the LVL made with commercial PF resins. These results showed the potential of RSF as a raw material of alternative adhesives for the production of LVL. Further works on the optimal conditions of RSF hydrolysis and spreading characteristics for RSF-based adhesive resins is required to improve the adhesive performance of RSF-based resins.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.111-118
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• 2007

Global warming crisis due primarily to continued green house gas emission requires impending change to renewable alternative energy than continuously depending on exhausting fossil fuels. Bioenergy including biodiesel and bioethanol are considered good alternatives because of their renewable and sustainable nature. Bioethanol is currently being produced by using sucrose from sugar beet, grain starches or lignocellulosic biomass as sources of ethanol fermentation. However, grain production requires significant amount of fossil fuel inputs during agricultural practices, which means less competitive in reducing the level of green house gas emission. By contrast, cellulosic bioethanol can use naturally-growing, not-for-food biomass as a source of ethanol fermentation. In this respect, cellulosic ethanol than grain starch ethanol is considered a more appropriate as a alternative renewable energy. However, commercialization of cellulosic ethanol depends heavily on technology development. Processes such as securing enough biomass optimized for economic processing, pretreatment technology for better access of polymer-hydrolyzing enzymes, saccharification of recalcitrant lignocellulosic materials, and simultaneous fermentation of different sugars including 6-carbon glucose as well as 5-carbon xylose or arabinose waits for greater improvement in technologies. Although it seems to be a long way to go until commercialization, it should broadly benefit farmers with novel source of income, environment with greener and reduced level of global warming, and national economy with increased energy security. Mission-oriented strategies for cellulosic ethanol development participated by government funding agency and different disciplines of sciences and technologies should certainly open up a new era of renewable energy.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2015

Lactic acid, the most widely occurring hydroxy-carboxylic acid, has traditionally been used as food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. Even though it has tremendous potential for large scale production and use in a wide variety of applications, high cost lactic acid materials are primarily problems. Lactic acid can be obtained on either by fermentation or chemical synthesis. In recent years, the fermentation approach has become more successful because of the increasing market demand for naturally produced lactic acid. Generally, lactic acid was produced from pure starch or from glucose. As an alternative, biomass which is the most abundant renewable resources on earth have been considered for conversion to readily utilizable hydrolysate. In this study, we conducted the fermentation method to produce L(+)-lactic acid production from pretreated hydrolysate was investigated by Lactobacillus rhamnosus ATCC 10863. The hydrolysate was obtained from pretreatment process of biomass using Ammonia percolation process (AP) followed by enzymatic hydrolysis. In order to effectively enhance lactic acid conversion and product yield, controlled medium, temperature, glucose concentration was conducted under pure glucose conditions. The optimum conditions of lactic acid production was investigated and compared with those of hydrolysate.