• Title/Summary/Keyword: membrane processes

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Significance of Caveolin-1 Regulators in Pancreatic Cancer

  • Chen, Tao;Liu, Liang;Xu, Hua-Xiang;Wang, Wen-Quan;Wu, Chun-Tao;Yao, Wan-Tong;Yu, Xian-Jun
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.14 no.8
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    • pp.4501-4507
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    • 2013
  • Caveolin-1 is a scaffold protein on the cell membrane. As the main component of caveolae, caveolin-1 is involved in many biological processes that include substance uptake and transmembrane signaling. Many of these processes and thus caveolin-1 contribute to cell transformation, tumorigenesis, and metastasis. Of particular interest are the dual rolesof tumor suppressor and oncogene that caveolin-1 appear to play in different malignancies, including pancreatic cancer. Therefore, analyzing caveolin-1 regulators and understanding their mechanisms of actionis key to identifying novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools for pancreatic cancer. This review details the mechanisms of action of caveolin-1 regulators and the potential significance for pancreatic cancer treatment.

Preparation of Bucky Paper using Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes Purified through Surface Functionalization and Investigation of Their Field Emission Characteristics (기능화에 의한 단일벽 탄소나노튜브 정제 및 페이퍼 제조와 전계방출 특성 연구)

  • Goak, Jeung-Choon;Lee, Seung-Hwan;Lee, Han-Sung;Lee, Nae-Sung
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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    • v.21 no.5
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    • pp.402-410
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    • 2008
  • Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were currently produced together with some contaminants such as a metallic catalyst, amorphous carbon, and graphitic nanoparticles, which should be sometimes purified for their applications. This study aimed to develop efficient, scalable purification processes but less harmful to SWCNTs. We designed three-step purification processes: acidic treatment, surface functionalization and soxhlet extraction, and heat treatment. During the soxhlet extraction using tetrahydrofuran, specifically, carbon impurities could be easily expelled through a glass thimble filter without any significant loss of CNTs. Finally, SWCNTs were left as a bulky paper on the filter through membrane filtration. Vertically aligned SWCNTs on one side of bulky paper were well developed in a speparation from the filter paper, which were formed by being sucked through the filter pores during the pressurized filtration. The bucky paper showed a very high peak current density of field emission up to $200\;mA/cm^2$ and uniform field emission images on phosphor, which seems very promising to be applied to vacuum microelectronics such as microwave power amplifiers and x-ray sources.

A Nucleolar Protein, MoRRP8 Is Required for Development and Pathogenicity in the Rice Blast Fungus

  • Minji Kim;Song Hee Lee;Junhyun Jeon
    • Mycobiology
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    • v.51 no.5
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    • pp.273-280
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    • 2023
  • The nucleolus is the largest, membrane-less organelle within the nucleus of eukaryotic cell that plays a critical role in rRNA transcription and assembly of ribosomes. Recently, the nucleolus has been shown to be implicated in an array of processes including the formation of signal recognition particles and response to cellular stress. Such diverse functions of nucleolus are mediated by nucleolar proteins. In this study, we characterized a gene coding a putative protein containing a nucleolar localization sequence (NoLS) in the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. Phylogenetic and domain analysis suggested that the protein is orthologous to Rrp8 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. MoRRP8-GFP (translational fusion of MoRRP8 with green fluorescence protein) co-localizes with a nucleolar marker protein, MoNOP1 fused to red fluorescence protein (RFP), indicating that MoRRP8 is a nucleolar protein. Deletion of the MoRRP8 gene caused a reduction in vegetative growth and impinged largely on asexual sporulation. Although the asexual spores of DMorrp8 were morphologically indistinguishable from those of wild-type, they showed delay in germination and reduction in appressorium formation. Our pathogenicity assay revealed that the MoRRP8 is required for full virulence and growth within host plants. Taken together, these results suggest that nucleolar processes mediated by MoRRP8 is pivotal for fungal development and pathogenesis.

Perfluoropolymer Membranes of Tetrafluoroethylene and 2,2,4Trifluofo- 5Trifluorometoxy- 1,3Dioxole.

  • Arcella, V.;Colaianna, P.;Brinati, G.;Gordano, A.;Clarizia, G.;Tocci, E.;Drioli, E.
    • Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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    • 1999.07a
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    • pp.39-42
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    • 1999
  • Perfluoropolymers represent the ultimate resistance to hostile chemical environments and high service temperature, attributed to the presence of fluorine in the polymer backbone, i.e. to the high bond energy of C-F and C-C bonds of fluorocarbons. Copolymers of Tetrafluoroethylene (TEE) and 2, 2, 4Trifluoro-5Trifluorometoxy- 1, 3Dioxole (TTD), commercially known as HYFLON AD, are amorphous perfluoropolymers with glass transition temperature (Tg)higher than room temperature, showing a thermal decomposition temperature exceeding 40$0^{\circ}C$. These polymer systems are highly soluble in fluorinated solvents, with low solution viscosities. This property allows the preparation of self-supported and composite membranes with desired membrane thickness. Symmetric and asymmetric perfluoropolymer membranes, made with HYFLON AD, have been prepared and evaluated. Porous and not porous symmetric membranes have been obtained by solvent evaporation with various processing conditions. Asymmetric membranes have been prepared by th wet phase inversion method. Measure of contact angle to distilled water have been carried out. Figure 1 compares experimental results with those of other commercial membranes. Contact angles of about 120$^{\circ}$for our amorphous perfluoropolymer membranes demonstrate that they posses a high hydrophobic character. Measure of contact angles to hexandecane have been also carried out to evaluate the organophobic character. Rsults are reported in Figure 2. The observed strong organophobicity leads to excellent fouling resistance and inertness. Porous membranes with pore size between 30 and 80 nanometers have shown no permeation to water at pressures as high as 10 bars. However high permeation to gases, such as O2, N2 and CO2, and no selectivities were observed. Considering the porous structure of the membrane, this behavior was expected. In consideration of the above properties, possible useful uses in th field of gas- liquid separations are envisaged for these membranes. A particularly promising application is in the field of membrane contactors, equipments in which membranes are used to improve mass transfer coefficients in respect to traditional extraction and absorption processes. Gas permeation properties have been evaluated for asymmetric membranes and composite symmetric ones. Experimental permselectivity values, obtained at different pressure differences, to various single gases are reported in Tab. 1, 2 and 3. Experimental data have been compared with literature data obtained with membranes made with different amorphous perfluoropolymer systems, such as copolymers of Perfluoro2, 2dimethyl dioxole (PDD) and Tetrafluorethylene, commercialized by the Du Pont Company with the trade name of Teflon AF. An interesting linear relationship between permeability and the glass transition temperature of the polymer constituting the membrane has been observed. Results are descussed in terms of polymer chain structure, which affects the presence of voids at molecular scale and their size distribution. Molecular Dyanmics studies are in progress in order to support the understanding of these results. A modified Theodoru- Suter method provided by the Amorphous Cell module of InsightII/Discover was used to determine the chain packing. A completely amorphous polymer box of about 3.5 nm was considered. Last but not least the use of amorphous perfluoropolymer membranes appears to be ideal when separation processes have to be performed in hostile environments, i.e. high temperatures and aggressive non-aqueous media, such as chemicals and solvents. In these cases Hyflon AD membranes can exploit the outstanding resistance of perfluoropolymers.

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Effect of Silica and Iron on the Fouling Tendency of Reverse Osmosis Membrane for Treating Wastewater from an Integrated Iron and Steel Mill (역삼투막을 이용한 제철폐수 처리 시 실리카 및 철 이온이 막 폐색에 미치는 영향)

  • Oh, Hee-Wan;Lee, Chae-Young
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.38 no.4
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    • pp.547-553
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    • 2018
  • An integrated iron and steel mill uses a large amount of water and produces wastewater which contains various contaminants such as iron, manganese, etc. Especially, in some regions of Southeast Asia, the concentration of silica in iron and steel mill wastewater is higher than in other countries. Silica is known to be one of the main causes for fouling in the membrane processes for water reuse. In cases of high concentrations of silica in iron and steel mill wastewater, the ferrous silicate tends to be formed. This could lead to higher fouling tendency depositing on the membrane surface. Therefore we conducted a pilot test to investigate the effect of silica and iron on the fouling tendency of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane for treating two types of wastewater from an integrated iron and steel mill. In this case of treated wastewater from iron and steel mill, RO pilot plant was operated with the fluxes 15.9LMH and 18.8LMH for 112 days to investigate the fouling characteristics. The results found that the fluctuation of flux was much wider than the average flux and the minimum permeability was low at 78%. In the case of treated runoff from an integrated iron and steel mill, the average concentration of iron was lower than in wastewater. RO pilot test was conducted with the flux 18.8LMH for 46 days. The results found that runoff had a lower fouling tendency and pre-treatment using microfiltration (MF) could minimize the fouling problem of RO.

Evaluation of System operated by Feed-and-discontinuous Bleed Mode using Tubular Type Ultrafiltration Membrane for Water Treatment (Feed-and-discontinuous Bleed 방식으로 운전되는 정수처리용 관상형 한외여과막 시스템의 평가)

  • Choi, Hyeok;Seo, Young-Woo;Kim, Hyung-Soo;Im, Jong-Seong;Hwang, Sun-Jin
    • Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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    • v.22 no.12
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    • pp.2187-2195
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    • 2000
  • A water treatment system using membrane separation technology can provide stable effluent quality and its maintenance is relatively easy comparing to the conventional water treatment system. In addition, the membrane filtration system is very compact such that it can replace existing water treatment processes of coagulation/sedimentation/filtration by only one process. However, a major problem associated with membrane filtration is flux decline with operating time due to concentration polarization and fouling, so a systematic study on evaluation of long-term filtration performance is necessary. A membrane filtration system using tubular type ultrafiltration membranes with MWCO of 30.000 Da was constructed for this study and it had been operated in a feed-and-discontinuous bleed mode. Flux was stabilized after operation of 1.500 hours and maintaining above 25 LMH until 4.000 hours. Contaminants causing SS and turbidity were almost completely removed while the $UV_{260}$ and DOC removals were 55% and 49%, respectively. A simple mass balance equation was developed to predict maximum concentrations of SS, turbidity, $UV_{260}$ and DOC in a operation cycle. For SS and turbidity the measured max, concentrations in each cycle agree well with the predicted values while the measured max, concentrations of $UV_{260}$ and DOC were 59% and 37% of the predicted values, respectively.

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Flux Model of One-shaft Rotary Disc UF Module for the Separation of Oil Emulsion (1축 회전판형 UF 모듈의 투과모델 및 Oil Emulsion 분리 특성)

  • 김제우;노수홍
    • Membrane Journal
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    • v.6 no.2
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    • pp.86-95
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    • 1996
  • Rotary disc ultrafiltration module(RDM) was developed for the separation of oil e$$\mu$sions. This module was devised to reduce the gel polarization phenomenon by decoupling the operation pressure and the surface velocity of solution in ultrafiltration(UF) processes. The rotary disc membrane consists of 3mm-thick ABS plate covered with UF membrane (UOP, U.S.A.). When the angular velocity($\omega$) was increased, the pure water flux was slightly decreased due to pressure drop caused by centrifugal force and slip flow at the surface of membrane. The pressure drop was proportional to the square of linear velocity(${\omega}r$). When the angular velocity was changed from 52.36rad/s to 2.62rad/s, the flux decline for 5% cutting oil in one-shaft RDM at $25^{\circ}C$ and 0.1MPa was 30.16%. In the lower concentrations, angular velocity tends to give less effect on the flux. Flux(J; $kg/m^{2} \cdot s$) in a rotating disc module is mainly a function of the bulk concentration($C_{B}$; %), the linear velocity(${\omega}r$; m/s) and the effective transmembrane pressure($\Delta P_{T}$ ; Pa). Using a modified resistance-in-series model, the flux data of cutting oil experiments were fitted to give the following equation.

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Technical Evaluation of MBR Process for the Wastewater Treatment of Beverage Fabrication Processes (음료수 제조 공정 폐수의 MBR 처리 기술 평가)

  • Jung, Cheol Joong;Park, Jong Min;Kim, Youn Kook
    • Membrane Journal
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.63-68
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    • 2014
  • Manufacturing facility for non-alcoholic drink, the parts of the food industry, disposes wastewater which includes high organic concentration and low nitrogen, phosphorus concentration. For this kind of wastewater, the treatment plant consists mainly of aerobic reactor and chemical coagulation process. And sand-filter or activated carbon process is normally installed further. However, aerobic reactor must have long HRT to treat high concentration of organic contaminant included in this wastewater, so the large site area is required. And settling tank which is normally applied for wastewater treatment facility has some problems such as water quality degradation caused by the sludge spill. To solve these problems, we applied MBR system for the wastewater. And the MBR pilot plant was installed nearby the wastewater treatment facility of W food factory and operated during long term to evaluate treatment efficiency. This plant was operated about 3 months and than the result was 97% of organic removal rate on conditions of flow rate $20m^3/day$, HRT 29 hr, recycle 4Q. However, contaminant removal ratio of bio-reactor decreased and TMP of membrane increased rapidly on more conditions.

Sequential Changes of Pericarp Ultrastructure in Citrus reticulata Hesperidium (Citrus reticulata 감과 과피 내 미세구조 변화)

  • Kim, In-Sun
    • Applied Microscopy
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    • v.33 no.1
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    • pp.79-92
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    • 2003
  • Ultrastructural changes of the pericarp in Citrus reticulata has been investigated during hesperidium abscission. The pericarp was composed of compactly arranged parenchyma cell layers during early stages of fruit development. The outermost exocarp was green and active in photosynthesis. However, cells in the exocarp soon changed into collenchyma cells by developing unevenly thickened walls within a short time frame. As the fruit approached maturation, the chlorophyll gradually disappeared and chloroplasts were transformed into carotenoid-rich chromoplasts. In the mature fruit the exocarp consisted of large, lobed collenchyma cells with primary pit fields and numerous plasmodesmata. The immature mesocarp was a relatively hard and thick layer, located directly under the exocarp. With development, the deeper layers of the exocarp merged into the white, spongy mesocarp. Before separation of the hesperidium from the plant, some unusual features were detected in the plasma membrane of the exocarp cells. The number of small vacuoles and dark, irregular osmiophilic lipid bodies also increased enormously in the exocarp collenchyma after the abscission. They occurred between the plasma membrane and the wall, and invaginated pockets of the plasma membrane containing double-membraned vesicles were also frequently noticed. The lipid bodies in the cytoplasm were often associated with other organelles, especially with plastids and mitochondria. The plastids, which were irregular or amoeboid in shape, contained numerous large lipid droplets, and occasional clusters of phytoferritin, as well as few loosely -oriented peripheral lamellae. Myelin-like configurations of membrane were frequently observed in the vacuoles, as was the association of lipid bodies with the vacuolar membrane. Most vacuoles had an irregular outline, and lipid bodies were often connected to the tonoplast of the vacuoles. The structural changes underlying developmental, particularly to senescence, processes in various hesperidium will be reported in the separate paper.

Preparation of Asymmetric PES Hollow Fiber Gas Separation Membranes and Their $CO_2/CH_4$ Separation Properties (비대칭구조의 폴리이서설폰 기체분리용 중공사막의 제조 및 이를 이용한 $CO_2/CH_4$ 분리특성)

  • Park, Sung-Ryul;Ahn, Hyo-Seong;Kim, Jeong-Hoon
    • Membrane Journal
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.367-376
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    • 2011
  • Huge amount of $CH_4$ mixtures has been emitted from landfills and organic wastes via anaerobic digestion. The recovery of high purity $CH_4$ from these gases has two merits: reduction of green house gases and production of renewable fuels. Membrane technology based on polymeric materials can be used in this application. In this study, asymmetric gas separation hollow fiber membranes were fabricated to develop the membrane-based bio-gas purification process. Polyethersulfone (PES) was chosen as a polymer materials because of high $CO_2$ permeability of 3.4 barrer and $CO_2/CH_4$ selectivity of 50[1]. Acetone was used as a non-solvent additive because of its unique swelling power for PES and highly volatile character. The prepared PES hollow fiber showed excellent separation properties: 36 GPU of $CO_2$ permeance and 46 of $CO_2/CH_4$ selectivity at optimized preparation conditions: 9wt% acetone content, 10cm air-gap and 4wt% PDMS coating processes. With the PES hollow fiber membranes developed, mixed $CO_2/CH_4$ test was done by changing various operating conditions such as pressures and feed compositions to meet the highest recovery of CH4 with 95% purity. High $CH_4$ recovery of 58 wt% was observed at 10 atm feed pressure for the 50 vol% of $CO_2$ in $CO_2/CH_4$ mixture.