• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.287-293
• /
• 2009

This study investigated the influence of ionic strength on the adhesion and release of bacteria (Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus) in quartz and iron-coated sands using column experiments. Results show that the mass recovery remained constant (E. coli = 13.7${\pm}$0.5%, B. subtilis = 9.8${\pm}$1.3%, S. aureus = 13.0${\pm}$2.1%) in iron-coated sand while it decreased from 80.7 to 45.3% (S. aureus) in quartz sand with increasing ionic concentrations from 1 to 100 mM. As the ionic concentrations of leaching solution was lowered from 100 to 0.1 mM, average 39.1% of bacterial detachment was quantified from quartz sand, but no bacterial release was observed in iron-coated sand. The phenomenon observed in iron-coated sand can be attributed to the inner-sphere complexes between bacteria and coated sand, which have minimal effect from ionic strength. This study improves our knowledge regarding the bacterial interaction with surface-modified porous media.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.135-141
• /
• 2006

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of cumulus cells and porcine follicular fluid (pFF) on plasminogen activator (PA) activity and oocytes maturation in vitro in the pig. The cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) and denuded oocytes (DOs) were incubated in NCSU-23 medium with or without 10% pFF for 0, 24, or 48 hr. In the presence of cumulus cells, the proportions of oocytes matured to metaphase-II stage were significantly (P<0.05) higher in medium with pFF than without pFF (69.8 vs. 37.7%, respectively). When COCs and DOs were cultured in the presence of pFF, tissue-type PA (tPA), urokinase-type PA (uPA), and tPA-PA inhibitor (tPA-PAI) were observed in COCs, and PA activities were higher at 48 hr than 24 hr. When COCs and DOs were cultured in the absence of pFF, tPA and tPA-PAI were observed in COCs, and PA activities were increased as duration of culture increased. No PA activities were detected in DOs regardless of pFF supplementation. When porcine oocytes were cultured in the presence of pFF for 24 and 48 hrs, the activities of tPA-PAI, tPA, and uPA were observed in both COCs and DOs. In medium of absence of pFF, PA activities were observed in oocytes with cumulus cells only. On the other hand, three plasminogen-dependent lytic bands (tPA-PAI, tPA, and uPA) were observed in pFF cultures. Particularly uPA activity was higher than the other kinds of PA activity. When oocytes and cumulus cells were separated from porcine COCs at 0 hr of culture, tPA-PAI, tPA, and uPA were detected in cumulus cells at 48 hr of culture, but no PA activities were in DOs. The presence of pFF and cumulus cells in maturation medium stimulated not only nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation in porcine COCs, but also PA production by cumulus cells and COCs. It is possible that PAs produced by cumulus cells migrated through the gap junction between oocyte and cumulus cells. These results suggest that porcine oocytes have no ability to produce PA themselves.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.29-35
• /
• 2007

Trace mineral studies involving metal ion chelators have been conducted in investigating the response of gene and protein expressions of certain cell lines but a few had really focused on how these metal ion chelators could affect the availability of important trace minerals such as Zn, Mn, Fe and Cu. The aim of the present study was to investigate the availability of Zn for the treatment of MC3T3-E1 osteoblast-like cells and the availability of some trace minerals in the cell culture media components after using chelexing resin in the FBS and the addition of N,N,N',N'-tetrakis-(2-pyridylmethyl)ethylenediamine (TPEN, membrane-permeable chelator) and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA, membrane-impermeable chelator) in the treatment medium. Components for the preparation of cell culture medium and Zn-treated medium have been tested for Zn, Mn, Fe and Cu contents by atomic absorption spectrophotometer or inductively coupled plasma spectrophotometer. Also, the expression of bone-related genes (ALP, Runx2, PTH-R, ProCOL I, OPN and OC) was measured on the cellular Zn depletion such as chelexing or TPEN treatment. Results have shown that using the chelexing resin in FBS would significantly decrease the available Zn (p<0.05) $(39.4{\pm}1.5{\mu}M\;vs\;0.61{\pm}10.15{\mu}M)$ and Mn (p<0.05) $(0.74{\pm}0.01{\mu}M\;vs\;0.12{\pm}0.04{\mu}M)$. However, levels of Fe and Cu in FBS were not changed by chelexing FBS. The use of TPEN and DTPA as Zn-chelators did not show significant difference on the final concentration of Zn in the treatment medium (0, 3, 6, 9, $12{\mu}M$) except for in the addition of higher $15{\mu}M\;ZnCl_2$ which showed a significant increase of Zn level in DTPA-chelated treatment medium. Results have shown that both chelators gave the same pattern for the expression of the five bone-related genes between Zn and Zn+, and TPEN-treated experiments, compared to chelex-treated experiment, showed lower bone-related gene expression, which may imply that TPEN would be a stronger chelator than chelex resin. This study showed that TPEN would be a stronger chelator compared to DTPA or chelex resin and TPEN and chelex resin exerted cellular zinc depletion to be enough for cell study for Zn depletion.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.479-485
• /
• 2017

Objective: The effects of particle size of processed barley grain, enzyme addition and microwave treatment on in vitro dry matter (DM) disappearance (DMD), gas production and fermentation pH were investigated for feedlot cattle. Methods: Rumen fluid from four fistulated feedlot cattle fed a diet of 860 dry-rolled barley grain, 90 maize silage and 50 supplement g/kg DM was used as inoculum in 3 batch culture in vitro studies. In Experiment 1, dry-rolled barley and barley ground through a 1-, 2-, or 4-mm screen were used to obtain four substrates differing in particle size. In Experiment 2, cellulase enzyme (ENZ) from Acremonium cellulolyticus Y-94 was added to dry-rolled and ground barley (2-mm) at 0, 0.1, 0.5, 1, and 2 mg/g, while Experiment 3 examined the interactions between microwaving (0, 30, and 60 s microwaving) and ENZ addition (0, 1, and 2 mg/g) using dry-rolled barley and 2-mm ground barley. Results: In Experiment 1, decreasing particle size increased DMD and gas production, and decreased fermentation pH (p<0.01). The DMD (g/kg DM) of the dry-rolled barley after 24 h incubation was considerably lower (p<0.05) than that of the ground barley (119.1 dry-rolled barley versus 284.8 for 4-mm, 341.7 for 2-mm; and 358.6 for 1-mm). In Experiment 2, addition of ENZ to dry-rolled barley increased DMD (p<0.01) and tended to increase (p = 0.09) gas production and decreased (p<0.01) fermentation pH, but these variables were not affected by ENZ addition to ground barley. In Experiment 3, there were no interactions between microwaving and ENZ addition after microwaving for any of the variables. Microwaving had minimal effects (except decreased fermentation pH), but consistent with Experiment 2, ENZ addition increased (p<0.01) DMD and gas production, and decreased (p<0.05) fermentation pH of dry-rolled barley, but not ground barley. Conclusion: We conclude that cellulase enzymes can be used to increase the rumen disappearance of barley grain when it is coarsely processed as in the case of dry-rolled barley. However, microwaving of barley grain offered no further improvements in ruminal fermentation of barley grain.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.73-78
• /
• 2015

The aim of this study was to examine the phosphate (P) removal by quintinite from aqueous solutions. Batch experiments were performed to examine the effects of reaction time, temperature, initial phosphate concentration, initial solution pH and stream water on the phosphate adsorption to quintinite. Kinetic, thermodynamic and equilibrium isotherm models were used to analyze the experimental data. Results showed that the maximum P adsorption capacity was 4.77 mgP/g under given conditions (initial P concentration = 2-20 mgP/L; adsorbent dose = 1.2 g/L; reaction time = 4 hr). Kinetic model analysis showed that the pseudo second-order model was the most suitable for describing the kinetic data. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that phosphate sorption to quintinite increased with increasing temperature from 15 to $45^{\circ}C$, indicating the spontaneous and endothermic nature of sorption process (${\Delta}H^0=487.08\;kJ/mol$; ${\Delta}S^0=1,696.12\;J/(K{\cdot}mol)$; ${\Delta}G^0=-1.67$ to -52.56 kJ/mol). Equilibrium isotherm analysis demonstrated that both Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson models were suitable for describing the equilibrium data. In the pH experiments, the phosphate adsorption to quintinite was not varied at pH 3.0-7.1 (1.50-1.55 mgP/g) but decreased considerably at a highly alkaline solution (0.70 mgP/g at pH 11.0). Results also indicated that under given conditions (initial P concentration=2 mgP/L; adsorbent dose=0.8 g/L; reaction time=4 hr), phosphate removal in the stream water (1.88 mgP/g) was lower than that in the synthetic solution (2.07 mgP/g), possibly due to the presence of anions such as (bi)carbonate and sulfate in the stream water.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.399-405
• /
• 1992

Using $MnO_2-coated$ fiber extraction and gamma counting techniques, we measured the distributions of $^{226}Ra$\;and\;^{228}Ra$ in the surface waters at 14 stations of East Sea of Korea in September, 1988. The concentrations of $^{226}Ra$\;and\;^{228}Ra$ in the surface waters ranged $70-110\;dpm/10^3l$ and 102=232 $dpm/10^3l$, respectively. In general, the concentrations of Ra isotopes were shown higher in the coastal and southern stations than those in the outer and northern stations in our observed area. Also, the concentrations of Ra isotopes in the study area were significantly higher than values in the other area of the East Sea and Kuroshio surface water, but much lower than the concentrations in the surface water of Yellow Sea reported previously. There was an inverse relationship between the $^{226}Ra/^{228}Ra$ ratio and salinity in the surface waters of Kuroshio, Yellow Sea and East Sea of Korea. This indicates that the continental shelf waters such as Yellow Sea and East China Sea are main source of Ra isotopes in surface waters of the East Sea of Korea.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.247-252
• /
• 2009

The present study was to investigate the nutritional status and factors related to malnutrition in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients requiring hemodialysis (HD) in South Korea. Subjects were ESRD outpatients from general hospitals or HD centers in Seoul referred to the dialysis clinic for maintenance HD care. A total of 110 patients (46 men and 64 women; mean ages $58.6{\pm}1.0y$) were eligible for this study. The family history of chronic renal failure (CRF) was considered positive if a patient reported having either a first-degree or second-degree relative with CRF. Malnutrition was defined as a triceps skinfold thickness or mid-ann muscle circumference below the fifth percentile for age and sex and forty-seven of the 110 patients were malnourished. Almost all (94%) patients had anemia (hemoglobin: <13 g/dL for men and <12 g/dL for women). Energy intake was below the recommended intake levels of energy [30-35 kcal/kg ideal body weight (IBW)] and protein (1.2 g/kg IBW) in 60% of patients. The duration of HD was longer in malnourished HD patients (P=0.0095). Malnutrition was more prevalent in women (P=0.0014), those who never smoked (P=0.0007), nondiabetic patients (P=0.0113), and patients with bone diseases (P=0.0427), adequate HD (spKt/$V{\geq}1.2$) (P=0.0178), and those with a family history of CRF (P=0.0255). Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between malnutrition and potential risk factors. After adjusting for age, sex, and other putative risk factors for malnutrition, the OR for malnutrition was greater in HD patients with a family history of CRF (OR, 3.290; 95% CI, $1.003{sim}10.793$). Active nutrition monitoring is needed to improve the nutritional status of HD patients. A family history of CRF may be an independent risk factor for malnutrition in Korean HD patients. A follow-up study is needed to investigate whether there is a causal relationship between a family history of CRF and malnutrition in Korean ESRD patients.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.411-419
• /
• 2003

This paper aims at developing 'gyro-mouse' which provides decent and comfortable human-computer interface that supports the usage of such software as an internet-browser in PC for the people paralyzed in upper limbs. This interface operates on information collected from head movement to get the cursor control. The interface is composed of two modules. One is hardware module in which the head horizontal and vertical angular velocities are detected and transmitted into PC. The other is a PC software that translates the received data into movement and click signals of the mouse. The ANN (artificial neural network) learns the quick nodding pattern of each user as click input so that it can provide user-friendly interface. The performance of the system was evaluated by three indices that are click recognition rate. error in cursor position control. and click rate of the moving target box. The performance result of the gyro-mouse was compared with that of the optical-mouse to assess the efficiency of the gyro-mouse. The average click recognition rate was 93%, average error in cursor position control was 1.4∼5 times of optical mouse. and the click rate with 50 pixels target box was 40%(30 clicks/min) to that of optical mouse. The click rate increased monotonously with the number of trial from 35% to 44%. The suggested system is expected to provide a new possibility to communicate with the society.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.447-454
• /
• 2007

To assess the port development and maritime traffic environment, the future traffic volume has been estimated using the number of inbound and outbound vessel for a specific port. The estimation of future traffic volume should be considered as an important factor to establish the degree of fairway congestion, the determination of fairway width and the operational role. Until now, the number of in and out vessel for the port has been only estimated mainly, but the type and size of inbound and outbound ships are different depending on the port's characteristics. So, it is difficult to estimate the future traffic volume using the change of only one item. This paper calculates the future traffic volume using the marine traffic characteristic factors as the number of coastal ship and ocean-going ship, the size of ship and the change of cargo volume per a ship etc. And it compared with the results of Artificial Neural Network(ANN) for accurate identification of nonlinear system.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.6 no.4 s.22
• /
• pp.75-89
• /
• 2004

Long term performance of concrete pavement significantly depends on the given construction and environmental condition. It means that random cracks and extreme crack width due to inappropriate quality control at the early age might lead to decreasing the pavement service life. The temperature and moisture during the construction, cement and aggregate types, curing condition are major components to affect the quality of the concrete pavement at the early age. First of all, the high temperature differential, that is made by increasing air temperature and the heat of cement hydration, is known as the major contributor to severe cracks. In this study, tent covering was used for controlling temperature of the concrete slab. The field measurement data indicates that the effect of the tent covering is very significant to decrease possibilities of random crack occurrence and curling stress and enhance the long-term concrete strength. HIPERPAV(High PERformance PAVing software), a program predicting the strength and stress of an earty-age concrete pavement (72 hour after placement), is used for simulating the effects of tent covering. The HIPERPAVE results showed that the section with the tent covering has higher reliability than the section without the tent covering by 22.5%. In details, reliability is increased 72.5% (without the tent covering) to 95% (with the tent covering).