• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.373-393
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• 2015

Background: Cellulose is a ubiquitous, renewable and environmentally friendly biopolymer, which has high promise to fulfil the rising demand for sustainable and biocompatible materials. Particularly, the recent progress in the synthesis of highly crystalline cellulose-based nanoscale biomaterials, namely cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), draws significant attention from many research communities, ranging from bioresource engineering, to materials science and engineering, to biological and biomedical engineering to bionanotechnology. The feasibility of harnessing CNCs' unique biophysicochemical properties has inspired their basic and applied research, offering much promise for new biomaterials with diverse advanced functionalities. Purpose: This review focuses on vital issues and topics on the recent advances in CNC-based biomaterials with potential, in particular, for bionanotechnology and biological and biomedical engineering. The challenges and limitations of CNC technology are discussed as well as potential strategies to overcome them, providing an essential source of information in the exploration of possible and futuristic applications of the CNC-based functional "green" nanomaterials. Conclusion: CNCs offer exciting possibilities for advanced "green" nanomaterials, driving innovative research and development in a wide range of fields, including biological and biomedical engineering.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.75-80
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• 1999

An investigation of noise and vibration caused by the reclamation of the foreshore around J village resulted in noise measurements of 56-84 dB at the first point, 62-81 dB at the second point, and 68-78 dB at the third point. These measurements were higher than the standard level of environmental noise that is 55 dB at noon and 45 dB at night. The vibration measurements were 61-83 dB at the first point, 63-88 dB at the second point, and 58-77 dB at the third point. These measurements were also higher than the standard level of environmental vibration that is 60 dB at noon and 54 dB at night. The measurements of scattering dust were 80 $\mu\textrm{g}$/$\textrm{m}^3$ at the first point, 120 $\mu\textrm{g}$/$\textrm{m}^3$ at the second point, and 169 $\mu\textrm{g}$/$\textrm{m}^3$ at the third point. These measurements were lower than the standard level of environmental dust that is 300 $\mu\textrm{g}$/$\textrm{m}^3$/day. Although the maximum vibration level was higher than the standard level of environmental vibration, it had no influence on the construction.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.323-327
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• 2014

Microbially induced calcite precipitation is a naturally occurring biological process in which microbes produce calcite on the surface of the microorganisms by urease activity. In order to collect calcite forming bacteria (CFB) in Korea, we isolated 343 putative CFB strains from various environments over three year period (2011~2013) and selected 100 CFB strains. Average of calcite productivity was 10.56 mg/mL. And average of ammonium concentration by urease activity was $8.00{\mu}M$. Two useful CFB strains of the others were analyzed by 16S rRNA and identified as Sporosarcina sp. and Viridibacillus arenosi. The CFB strains presented in this study are indigenous microorganisms in Korea and they are expected to be applicable to a variety of environments in the country.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.412-417
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• 2001

Sodium alginate was used to immobilize Bifidobacterium breve ATCC 15700 cells. The ability of the Ca-alginate beads to protect the B. breve ATCC 15700 was evaluated under different conditions including alginate concentration, bead size, pH, hydrogen peroxide, and storage period. The survival of the B. Breve ATCC 15700 was estimated in pasteurized yogurt, containing either the immobilized or free cells, throughout the storage period. The survival cells in bead after exposure to acidic solution (pH 3.0) increased with increase of both the alginate gel concentration and bead size. Also, immobilized cells in alginate bead were more resistant than the free cells to hydrogen peroxide, storage period, and the environment inside yogur. When retreated beads with skim milk and nonretreated beads were tested in acidified pH 3.0 TPY media including acetic and lactic acid, the number of viable cells in the retreated bead was approximately 10-fold higher than that of nonretreated beads. This suggests that the skim milk operated as a material decreasing the diffusion of acid and hydrogen perosicde into alginate gels. From this research, it was found that yogurt itself supported immobilized cells with an improved protection from the extreme acidity in yogurt.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.273-282
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• 1993

This study is concerned with the temperature dependence characteristics of ultrasound parameters in biological tissues, which are basic on the noninvasive deep body temperature estimation. Used parameters are ultrasonic attenuation coefficient and sound velocity In order to accomplishment our purpose, several signal processing methods were used. Attenua4iorl coefficient was estimated by spectral difference method and sound velocity was estimated by P-P method. And we also examined these methods through a series of IN VITRO experi mentis that used tissue-mimicking phantom samples and biological tissue samples. In order to imitate the biological soft tissue two kinds of phantom samples are used, one is agar phantom sample which is composed of agar, graphite, N-propyl alcohol and distilled water, and the other is fat phantom sample which is composed of pure animal fat. And the ultrasound transmission mode and reflection mode experiments are performed on the pig's spleen, kidney and fat. As a result, it is found that the temperature characteristics are uniform in case of phan- tom samples but not in biological tissues because of complicate wave propagation within them. Consequently, the possibility of temperature measurement using ultrasound on biological tissue is confirmed and its results may contribute to the establishment of reference values of internal temperature measurement of biological tissues.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1746-1754
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• 2016

Recently, spherical beads entrapping quorum quenching (QQ) bacteria have been reported as effective moving QQ-media for biofouling control in MBRs for wastewater treatment owing to their combined effects of biological (i.e., quorum quenching) and physical washing. Taking into account both the mass transfer of signal molecules through the QQ-medium and collision efficiencies of the QQ-medium against the filtration membranes in a bioreactor, a cylindrical medium (QQ-cylinder) was developed as a new shape of moving QQ-medium. The QQ-cylinders were compared with previous QQ-beads in terms of the QQ activity and the physical washing effect under identical loading volumes of each medium in batch tests. It was found that the QQ activity of a QQ-medium was highly dependent on its specific surface area, regardless of the shape of the medium. In contrast, the physical washing effect of a QQ-medium was greatly affected by its geometric structure. The enhanced anti-biofouling property of the QQ-cylinders relative to QQ-beads was confirmed in a continuous laboratory-scale MBR with a flat-sheet membrane module.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.747-751
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• 2008

The effect of additives in the synthesis of biodiesel fuel using supercritical methanol was studied in order to examine the possibility of application of spent vegetable oil as a raw material, which has high contents of water or free fatty acid. The experiments were performed by varying the contents of water, free fatty acid or antioxidants respectively in a batch reactor. The contents of fatty acid methyl ester was analyzed by a gas chromatography. As the water contents increased, the contents of fatty acid methyl ester decreased, however, the decrease was very little compared with the alkaline and acid catalyst. The effect of the contents of free fatty acid, vitamin E, and ${\beta}$-carotene was negligible.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.590-590
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2005.08a
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• pp.75-75
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• 2005

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.425-430
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• 2014

Amyloidogenic proteins often exhibit fibrillar polymorphism through alternative assembly processes, which has been considered to have possible pathological implications. Here, firefly luciferase (LUC) is shown to induce amyloid polymorphism of ${\alpha}$-synuclein, the major constituent of Lewy bodies found in Parkinson's disease, by acting as a novel template. The drastically accelerated fibrillation kinetics of ${\alpha}$-synuclein with LUC required the nucleation center produced by the active enzyme of LUC. Fluorescent dye binding, transmission electron microscopy, and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy revealed the morphologically distinctive amyloid fibrils of ${\alpha}$-synuclein prepared in the absence or presence of LUC. As the altered morphological characteristics became inherent to the mature fibrils, those properties were inherited to next-generations via nucleation-dependent fibrillation process. The seed control, therefore, would be an effective means to modify amyloid fibrils with different biochemical characteristics. In addition, the LUC-directed amyloid fibrillar polymorphism also suggests that other cellular biomolecules including enzymes in general are able to diversify amyloid fibrils, which could be self-propagated with diversified biological activities, if any, inside cells.