• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.403-415
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• 2023

This study aimed to isolate and identify L-(+)-lactic acid-producing bacteria from tree barks collected in Thailand and evaluate the potential strain as probiotics. Twelve strains were isolated and characterized phenotypically and genotypically. The strains exhibited a rod-shaped morphology, high-temperature tolerance, and the ability to ferment different sugars into lactic acid. Based on 16S rRNA gene analysis, all strains were identified as belonging to Weizmannia coagulans. Among the isolated strains, BKMTCR2-2 demonstrated exceptional lactic acid production, with 96.41% optical purity, 2.33 g/l of lactic acid production, 1.44 g/g of lactic acid yield (per gram of glucose consumption), and 0.0049 g/l/h of lactic acid productivity. This strain also displayed a wide range of pH tolerance, suggesting suitability for the human gastrointestinal tract and potential probiotic applications. The whole-genome sequence of BKMTCR2-2 was assembled using a hybridization approach that combined long and short reads. The genomic analysis confirmed its identification as W. coagulans and safety assessments revealed its non-pathogenic attribute compared to type strains and commercial probiotic strains. Furthermore, this strain exhibited resilience to acidic and bile conditions, along with the presence of potential probiotic-related genes and metabolic capabilities. These findings suggest that BKMTCR2-2 holds promise as a safe and effective probiotic strain with significant lactic acid production capabilities.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.369-378
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• 2017

Vascular endotherial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent mitogen that stimulates vascular permeability and angiogenesis and has a potential in therapeutic applications. An industrial production method that provides high yield as well as purity is needed. Researches for various factors of mild solubilization with combination of ubiquitin fusion protein to increase solubility were carried out as well as by changing pH and denaturant concentration. Usage of pET28-a bacteral expression vector in BL21 (DE3) host cell was capable of producing approximately 14 g/L VEGF fusion protein in 20L fermentor. A purification process consisting of four chromatography steps including refolding and digestion with UBP1 resulted in mild solublization under the conditions of 2M urea and pH 10.0 due to ubiquitin fusion tag protein that increases in solubility of target protein VEGF. High yield of refolding and dimerization could be obtained between two step Ni-affinity chromatography. Multimeric and misfolded proteins and endotoxin were removed by DEAE anion exchange chromatography. Final monomers were removed from dimers by gel filtration chromatography. Characterization analysis of purified dimeric VEGF was performed using SDS-PAGE and RP-HPLC with a purity of 97%.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.220-230
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• 2022

Seasonal variability of water quality in the upland headwater streams in ten forested catchments (37.0~209.0 ha) was examined from April to November 2021. Here, seven physicochemical parameters were analyzed including pH, electrical conductivity (EC), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (T-N), total phosphorous (T-P), and BOD/TOC. The parameters were compared with those of lowerland rivers as middle and lower reaches within a watershed. The pH showed was low (6.4~6.9) during all the seasons, however, BOD and BOD/TOC in the fall season were 2-fold higher than in the spring and summer seasons. Based on environmental standards, the water quality level revealed that the upland headwater streams maintained the purity and cleanliness of water except for pH in the summer season. BOD/TOC of all the seasons and BOD of the fall season in the upland headwater streams were higher than that in the lowerland rivers, whereas the rest of the physicochemical parameters in the upland headwater streams were lower than that in the lowerland rivers. Additionally, the water quality level maintained the purity and cleanliness of water as "Good" in two reaches. The unique aspects of our study design enabled us to draw inferences about water quality characteristics with temporal and spatial analysis in upland headwater streams. This design will be useful for the long-term strategy of effective water quality management for integrated upland headwater streams and lowerland rivers within a watershed.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.75-84
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• 2023

The accumulation of spent carbide (YG8), not only pollutes the environment but also causes waste of tungsten, cobalt and other rare metal resources. To better address this issue, we proposed a combined electrochemical separation process of low-temperature aqueous solution and high-temperature molten salt for tungsten and cobalt. H₂WO₄ was obtained from spent carbide in an aqueous solution, and we calcined it to obtain WO₃, which was used as a raw material to obtain tungsten by using molten salt electrodeposition. The influence of the current efficiency and the electrochemical behavior of the discharge precipitation of W(VI) were also studied. The calcination results showed that the morphology of WO₃ was regular and there were no other impurities. The maximum current efficiency of 82.91% was achieved in a series of electrodeposition experiments. According to XRD and SEM analysis, the recovered product was high purity tungsten, which belongs to the simple cubic crystal system. In the W(VI) reduction mechanism experiments, the electrochemical process of W(VI) in NaCl-Na₂WO₄-WO₃ molten salt was investigated using linear scanning voltammetry (LSV) and chronoamperometry in a three-electrode system. The LSV showed that W(VI) was reduced at the cathode in two steps and the electrode reaction was controlled by diffusion. The fitting results of chronoamperometry showed that the nucleation mechanism of W(VI) was an instantaneous nucleation mode, and the diffusion coefficient was 7.379×10^-10 cm²·s^-1.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.242-249
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• 2018

This study was conducted to develop an SNP set that can be useful for marker-assisted breeding (MAB) in watermelon (Citrullus. lanatus L) using Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) analysis of 20 commercial elite watermelon inbreds. The result of GBS showed that 77% of approximately 1.1 billion raw reads were mapped on the watermelon genome with an average mapping region of about 4,000 Kb, which indicated genome coverage of 2.3%. After the filtering process, a total of 2,670 SNPs with an average depth of 31.57 and the PIC (Polymorphic Information Content) value of 0.1~0.38 for 20 elite inbreds were obtained. Among those SNPs, 55 SNPs (5 SNPs per chromosome that are equally distributed on each chromosome) were selected. For the understanding genetic relationship of 20 elite inbreds, PCA (Principal Component Analysis) was carried out with 55 SNPs, which resulted in the classification of inbreds into 4 groups based on PC1 (52%) and PC2 (11%), thus causing differentiation between the inbreds. A similar classification pattern for PCA was observed from hierarchical clustering analysis. The SNP set developed in this study has the potential for application to cultivar identification, F1 seed purity test, and marker-assisted backcross (MABC) not only for 20 elite inbreds but also for diverse resources for watermelon breeding.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.231-235
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• 2012

Indian citrus ring spot virus (ICRSV) is known to cause a serious disease to citrus, especially to Kinnow mandarin, the popular cultivated citrus species in India. In this study, we developed diagnostic systems based on enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In order to generate antibodies against ICRSV coat protein, we overexpressed the coat protein in Escherichia coli using the pET15b expression vector containing an optimized ICRSV coat protein gene. The recombinant ICRSV coat protein was overexpressed as soluble form at $37^{\circ}C$ upon IPTG induction. The protein was purified to 95% in purity by Ni-NTA column chromatography. The purified protein was immunized to rabbit for the generation of polyclonal antibody (PAb). The PAb showed a specific immunoreaction to recombinant ICRSV coat protein in western blot analysis and ELISA. Diluted rabbit antisera (10,000 fold) could detect less than 10 ng and 5 ng of the target protein in western blot and ELISA analysis, respectively.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.227-233
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• 1994

Irradiation of 20mg of natural $Dy(NO_3)_3$ in a neutron flux of $2{\times}10^{13}n/cm^2$ sec for 4 hours gave 5.76 Ci of $^{165}Dy$(specific activity, 610mCi/mg Dy) with high radionuclidic purity (>99.9 %). $^{165}Dy-MA$ was prepared in a quantitative yield by reacting the aqueous solution of $^{165}Dy(NO_3)_3$ with sodium borohydride solution in 0.2N NaOH. Coulter particle analyzer exhibited mean particle size of $2.6{\mu}m$ (range $1{\sim}6{\mu}m$), Even though the $^{165}Dy-MA$ suspension in saline was stored at $37^{\circ}C$ for 24 hours or autoclaved at $121^{\circ}C$ for 30minutes, there was no significant change in particle size and leakage problem indicating the prepared $^{165}Dy-MA$ is sufficiently stable. In-vivo retention studies were carried out by administering $^{165}Dy-MA$ into the knee joint space of normal rabbits. Gamma camera analysis showed high retention in joint space of normal rabbits. Gamma camera analysis showed high retention in joint space even at 24 hours after administration (> 99.9%). The ease with which the $^{165}Dy-MA$ can be made in the narrow size range and their high invitro and vivo stability make them attractive agents for radiation synovectomy.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.699-710
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• 2019

Electric vehicles (EVs) are spreading rapidly and many counties are promoting hybrid and fully EVs through legislation. Therefore, an increasing amount of lithium ion batteries will reach the end of their usable life and will require effective and sustainable end-of-life management plan which include landfill disposal or incineration. The current research focuses on more sustainable methods such as remanufacturing, reuse and recycling in order to prepare for future battery compositions and provide insights to the need recycling methods to be developed to handle large amounts of batteries sustainably in the near future. The two most prominent material recovery techniques are hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy which are explored and assessed on their relative effectiveness, sustainability, and feasibility. Hydrometallurgy is a superior recycling method due to high material recovery and purity, very low emissions, high prevalence of chemical reuse and implementation of environmentally sustainable compounds. Expanding recycling technologies globally should take the research and technologies pioneered by Umicore to establish a sustainable recycling program for end-of-life EVs batteries. Emerging battery technology of Telsa show the most effective designs for high performance batteries includes the use of silicon which is expected to increase capacity of batteries in the future.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.44.1-44.10
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• 2023

Tumor hypoxia, oxygen deprivation state, occurs in most cancers and promotes angiogenesis, enhancing the potential for metastasis. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family genes play crucial roles in tumorigenesis by promoting angiogenesis. To investigate the malignant processes triggered by hypoxia-induced angiogenesis across pan-cancers, we comprehensively analyzed the relationships between the expression of VEGF family genes and hypoxic microenvironment based on integrated bioinformatics methods. Our results suggest that the expression of VEGF family genes differs significantly among various cancers, highlighting their heterogeneity effect on human cancers. Across the 33 cancers, VEGFB and VEGFD showed the highest and lowest expression levels, respectively. The survival analysis showed that VEGFA and placental growth factor (PGF) were correlated with poor prognosis in many cancers, including kidney renal cell and liver hepatocellular carcinoma. VEGFC expression was positively correlated with glioma and stomach cancer. VEGFA and PGF showed distinct positive correlations with hypoxia scores in most cancers, indicating a potential correlation with tumor aggressiveness. The expression of miRNAs targeting VEGF family genes, including hsa-miR-130b-5p and hsa-miR-940, was positively correlated with hypoxia. In immune subtypes analysis, VEGFC was highly expressed in C3 (inflammatory) and C6 (transforming growth factor β dominant) across various cancers, indicating its potential role as a tumor promotor. VEGFC expression exhibited positive correlations with immune infiltration scores, suggesting low tumor purity. High expression of VEGFA and VEGFC showed favorable responses to various drugs, including BLU-667, which abrogates RET signaling, an oncogenic driver in liver and thyroid cancers. Our findings suggest potential roles of VEGF family genes in malignant processes related with hypoxia-induced angiogenesis.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.49-53
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• 2016

The electro-refining process was performed to purify the casted tin crude metal from waste tin in methanesulfonic acid. The surface morphologies of electrodeposited tin on cathode were observed, the dendrite and delamination were inhibited by glycol group of organic additive. The impurity concentrations of tin crude metal and deposited metal were analyzed using ICP-OES. Quantitative analysis on casted tin crude metal showed that it consists of tin with 97.280 wt.% and several impurity metals of Ag, Cu, Pb, Ni, and etc. After tin electro-refining, the purity of tin increased up to 99.956 wt.%. Reduction current by cyclic voltammetry seems to be closely related to behavior of impurity in tin electro-refining.