• The Korean Journal of Pharmacology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.37-60
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• 1983

The uterus receives adrenergic terminals from the mesenteric ganglia and considerably large amount of catecholamines have been shown to be contained in this organ. On the other hand, the activities of epinephrine, norepinephrine or adrenergic nerve on uterine motility is so complicated that many controversial results have been reporter. Recently, a large number of reports concerning the changes of uterine catecholamines content have appeared, but little is known about the role of uterine catecholamines in their activities on uterine motility. The present experiments were undertaken to determine the significance of the intrinsic uterine catecholamines in the physiology of uterus. Female albino rabbits weighing approximately 2 kg were employed in this experiment. uterine strip3 were prepared and suspended in a constant temperature $bath(38^{\circ}C)$ containing 100 ml of Locke's solution aerated with 95% oxygen and 5% carbon dioxide. Spontaneous motility was recorded on a smoked drum with an isotonic lever. The catecholamines concentration of the uterus was determined according to the Procedure described of Shore and Olin (1958). Human uterus obtained from patients was also used to determine the catecholam ines content of myometrium. Followings are summarized results. 1) On the non-pregnant rabbit uterine strips, epinephrine and norepinephrine significantly elevated the tonus and stimulated the spontaneous motility. Pretreatment with dichloroisoproterenol(DCI), an adrenergic beta-receptor blocker, enhanced the stimulatory activity of epinephrine or norepinephrine. On the other hand, pretreatment with dibenamine, an adrenergic alpha-receptor blocker, rendered the uterine muscle to exhibit inhibition after the administration of epinephrine or norepinephrine. Following the treatment with both DCI and dibenamine, epinephrine or norepinephrine produced no appreciable effects on the spontaneous motility of the uterus. These results suggest there exist both alpha and beta-adrenergic receptors in the uterine muscle and the response to epinephrine of the former is predominant over that of latter in the non-pregnant uterus of rabbits. The total catecholamines concentration of the non-pregnant uterus was $351\;m{\mu}g/g$ and the fractional concentrations of epinephrine and norepinephrine were $125\;m{\mu}g/g(35.7%)$ and $226\;m{\mu}g/g$ respectively. It is interesting to note that the catecholamines content of uterus was characterized by a high fractional corcentration of epinephrine relative to norepinephrine. 2) On the pregnant rabbit uterine strips, the effects of epinephrine and norepinephrine varied according to the period of pregnancy. The response to epinephrine of adrenergic beta receptor of uterus increased during pregnancy, and the effect of catecholamine was inhibitory in the early pregnancy but became stimulatory as the pregnancy progressed. This stimulating action on the uterine motility was found to occur through the action of norepinephrine. The uterine catecholamines concentration was markedly reduced during pregnancy. The catecholamines concentration was started to decrease in the early pregnancy, reached the lowest level in the mid-pregnancy and then started to increaae again in the late pregnancy when the total catecholamines content became the highest level of all. This increase of catefholamines in late pregnancy was chiefly due to the increase of norepinephrine. These results suggest that the uterine motility may be related to the catecholamines content, especially norepinephrine content in the uterus. 3) Bilateral oophorectomy of rabbits results in a marked shrink of the uterus in size. The spontaneous motility of the uterine segment of these animals was very weak and irregular. Norepinephrine produced inhibitory effect, whereas epinephrine was stimulatory or inhibitory effect on the uterine segment. The total catecholamines tontent in whole uterus was markedly reduced. The injection of estrogen into the oophorectornized rabbit increased the weight of uterus to approximately three times of that of oophorectornized animal. The apontaneous motility and the response to epinephrine and norepinephrine of the uterine segment were greatly enhanced. Both epinephrine and norepinephrine produced a marked stimulatory effects of the uterine motility. The uterine content of catecholamines, particularly epinephrine, was markedly increased. The injection of progesterone into the oophorectornized rabbit increaeed the weight of uterus to approximately 2.5 times of that of eophorectornized animal. The spontaneous motility of the uterine segment was weak and irregular. Epinephrine produced stimulatory effect at high concentrations but norepinephrine always prcdnced inhibitory effect on the uterine segment. The uterine content of catecholamines, particularly of norepinephrine, was markedly reduced. These results suggested that ovarian hormones play an important role not only on the growth and spontaneous norepinephrine of uterus but also on the catecholamines content and responee to epinephrine and norepinephrine of the uterus. 4) The intraperitoneal injection of reserpine(3 mg/kg) into the non-pregnant, pregnant and oophorectornieed rabbits markedly decreased the uterine content of catecholamines, particularly of the norepinephrine. The stimulatory response to epinephrine and. norepinephrine of the uterine segment of these reserpinized ratbits was markedly reduced whereas the inhibitory response to these catecholamines was enhanced. This finding further support the close relationship between the uterine catecholamines content and uterine response to epineptrire and norepinephrine. 5) In the human uterus, the concentration of epinephrine was actrally greater than that of norepinephrine and it was significantly greater during the proliferative phase of the menstrtal cycle. In the human pregnant uterus, the concentrations of toth epinephrine and ncrefinephrine were markedly reduced and showed about 45 percent rednction after 6-8 weeks of ectopic Pregnancy. At full term ana during labor, the concentrations of epinephrine and norepinephrine at placental sites were less than those found in the non-pregnant group. Of interest was the finding that the norepinephrine concentration of uterus from toxemic patients was two and half times higher than that of lower uterine segment of the nontoxemic pregnant individuals. Also the epinephrine concentraticn was slightly increaeed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.356-361
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• 2018

It is common to analyze volatile organic compound (VOC) or semi-VOC (SVOC) in a sample composed of a complex matrix consisting of multiple components such as bloods through a separation process. Adsorption is a physical phenomenon in which certain components accumulate on the surface of other phases. In order to overcome difficulties in the pretreatment process, an adsorption is frequently used. Solid phase microextraction (SPME) equipment with porous carbon carboxen (CAR) is an example of adsorption application. In this study, the adsorption of 4-octylphenol to carboxen was examined. To do so, the extraction efficiency for such solvents as dichloromethane ($CH_2Cl_2$, DCM), ethylacetate ($CH_3COOC_2H_5$, EA) and diethylether ($C_2H_5OC_2H_5$, $Et_2O$) was studied and also the derivatization reaction for 4-octylphenol with reagents of bistrimethylsilyltrifluoroacetamide (BSTFA), methylchloroformate (MCF) and pentafluorobenzylbromide (PFBBr) was compared. The combination of DCM and BSTFA showed good performance thus they were adopted for this study. Thermodynamic adsorption experiments showed that the adsorption process was endothermic and Freundlich isotherm equation was more suitable than Langmuir isotherm. It was also found that the adsorption followed a pseudo-$2^{nd}$ order kinetic model.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.583-591
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• 2002

Biodegradation of fat, oil, and grease (FOGs) plays an Important role in wastewater management and water pollution control. However, many industrial food-processing and food restaurants generate FOG-containing waste waters for which there Is no acceptable technology for their pretreatment. To solve these problems, this study evaluated the feasibility of effective FOG-degrading microorganisms on the biodegradation of olive oil and FOG-containing wastewater. Twenty-two strains capable of degrading FOGs were isolated from five FOG-contaminated sites for the evaluation of their FOG degradation capabilities. Among twenty-two strains tested, the lipase-producing Pseudomonas sp. strain D2D3 was selected for actual FOG wastewater treatment. Its biodegradability was performed at 3$0^{\circ}C$ and pH 8. The extent of FOG removal efficiency was varied for each FOG tested, being the highest for olive oil and animal fat (94.5% and 94.4%), and the lowest for safflower oil (62%). The addition of organic nitrogen sources such as yeast extract, soytone, and peptone enhanced the removal efficiency of FOGs, but the addition of the inorganic nitrogen nutrients such as $NH_4$Cl and $(NH_4)_2SO_4$ did not increase. The $KH_2PO_4$ sources in 0.25% to 0.5% concentrations showed more than 90% degradability. As a result, the main pathway for the oxidation of fatty acids results in the removal of two carbon atoms as acetyl-CoA with each reaction sequence: $\beta$-oxidation. Its lipase activity showed 38.5 U/g DCW using the optimal media after 9 h. Real wastewater and FOGs were used for determining the removal efficiency by using Pseudomonas sp. strain D2D3 bioadditive. The degradation by Pseudomonas sp. strain D2D3 was 41% higher than that of the naturally occurring bacteria. This result indicated that the use of isolated Pseudomonas sp. strain D2D3 in a bioaugmentating grease trap or other processes might possibly be sufficient to acclimate biological processes for degrading FOGs.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.18-28
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• 2014

Renewable Portfolio Standards(RPS) is a regulation that requires a renewable energy generated from eco-friendly energy sources such as biomass, wind, solar, and geothermal. The RPS mechanism generally is an obligatory policy that places on electricity supply companies to produce a designated fraction of their electricity from renewable energies. The domestic companies to supply electricity largely rely on wood pellets in order to implement the RPS in spite of undesirable situation of lack of wood resources in Korea. This means that the electricity supply companies in Korea must explore new biomass as an alternative to wood. Palm kernel shell (PKS) and empty fruit bunch (EFB) as oil palm wastes can be used as raw materials used for making pellets after their thermochemical treatment like torrefaction. Torrefaction is a pretreatment process which serves to improve the properties including heating value and energy densification of these oil palm wastes through a mild pyrolysis at temperature typically ranging between 200 and $300^{\circ}C$ in the absence of oxygen under atmospheric pressure. Torrefaction of oil palms wastes at above $200^{\circ}C$ contributed to the increase of fixed carbon with the decrease of volatile matters, leading to the improvement of their calorific values over 20.9 MJ/kg (=5,000 kcal/kg) up to 25.1 MJ/kg (=6,000 kcal/kg). In particular, EFB sensitively responded to torrefaction because of its physical properties like fiber bundles, compared to PKS and hardwood chips. In conclusion, torrefaction treatment of PKS and EFB can greatly contribute to the implement of RPS of the electricity supply companies in Korea through the increased co-firing biomass with coal.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.440-448
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• 1993

To utilize effectively fish skin wasted from fish processing, a dover sole skin gelatin was prepared by alkaline extraction method and the physico-chemical properties were examined. Conditions for the suitable pretreatment, extraction and decolorization for gelatin preparation from dover sole skin are as follows: the skin is limed with 1.0% calcium hydroxide solution at $5^{\circ}C$ for 4 days, washed thoroughly for 2 days with tap water, extracted with 5 volumes of water $(pH\;5.0{\sim}7.0)$ to dehydrated skin for 3 hours at $50^{\circ}C$, and then bleached with 3% activated carbon. Though dover sole skin gelatin was prepared under above conditions, physico-chemical property values such the melting point and gelling point of that were lower than those of yellowfin sole skin gelatin as well as the commercial pork skin gelatin. Therefore, the purified dover sole skin gelatin requires a suitable modification operation for better quality gelatin manufacture.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2016

Objectives : Liver is one of the largest organs in the human, and has a function of detoxification and energy sensing to prevent severe disease. Paeoniae radix has been used to treat a variety of liver diseases such as hepatitis and chronic hepatic failure. Although P. radix has been used as an medicinal herb for a long time, the effects of P. radix on severe oxidative stress and its action mechanism on the liver was not clearly verified.Methods : This study investigated the protective effects of P. radix extract (PRE), and the underlying mechanism of its action in the liver. tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BHP) and carbon tetrachlroride (CCl₄) were used to induce oxidative stress in the HepG2 hepatocyte cell line and Sprague-Dawley rats, respectively.Results : t-BHP significantly induced cell death and ROS production in HepG2 cell, as indicated by MTT and FACS analysis. However, pretreatment of PRE inhibited a decrease in cell viability and H₂O₂ production in the HepG2 cells. PRE also blocked the ability of t-BHP to damage in mitochondrial membrane transition. More importantly, PRE induced Nrf2 activation and antioxidant Phase II enzyme, which may have a role in the effects of PRE. In mice, PRE inhibited the liver damage induced by CCl₄.Conclusions : PRE inhibited oxidative stress and hepatic damages as mediated with Nrf2 activation. This study unveil, in part, the effect and mechanism of old medicinal herb, P. radix.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.537-541
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• 2005

A bubbling fluidized bed reactor was used to study $CO_2$ capture from flue gas using a sodium-based dry regenerable sorbent, sorbA which was manufactured by Korea Electric Power Research Institute. A dry sorbent, sorbA, consists of $Na_2CO_3$ for absorption and supporters for mechanical strength. $CO_2$ capture was effective in the lower temperature range of $50-70^{\circ}C$, while regeneration occurred in the range of $120-300^{\circ}C$. To increase initial $CO_2$ removal, some amount of steam was absorbed in the sorbents before injecting simulated flue gas. It was possible to remove most $CO_2$ for 1-2 minutes at $50^{\circ}C$ and residence time of 2 seconds with steam pretreatment. Little or no reduction in initial reaction rate and capture capacity was observed in multicycle tests. The carbonated and regenerated sorbent samples were analyzed by NMR to confirm the extent of reaction. The results obtained in this study can be used as basic data for the scale-up design and operation of the $CO_2$ capture process with two fluidized bed reactors.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.137-150
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• 2011

$CO_{2}$ mineral carbonation technology, fixation technology of $CO_{2}$ as carbonates, is considered to be an alternative to the $CO_{2}$ geological storage technology, which can perform small- or medium-scale $CO_{2}$ storage. We provide the current R&D status of the mineral carbonation with special emphasis on the technical and economical feasibility of $CO_{2}$ mineral carbonation taken into consideration of the domestic geological and industrial environment. Given that the domestic industry produces relatively large amount of the industrial by-products, it is expected that the technology play a pivotal role on the $CO_{2}$ reduction countermeasure, reaching the potential storage capacity to 12Mt-$CO_{2}$/yr. The economics of the overall process should be improved via the development of advanced technologies on the pretreatment of raw materials, method/solvents for metal extraction, enhanced kinetics of carbonation reactions, heat integration, and the production of highly value-added carbonates.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.595-603
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• 2016

(E)-3-Phenyl-1-(2-pyrrolyl)-2-propenone (PPP) is a pyrrole derivative of chalcone, in which the B-ring of chalcone linked to ${\beta}$-carbon is replaced by pyrrole group. While pyrrole has been studied for possible Src inhibition activity, chalcone, especially the substituents on the B-ring, has shown pharmaceutical, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidant properties via inhibition of NF-${\kappa}B$ activity. Our study is aimed to investigate whether this novel synthetic compound retains or enhances the pharmaceutically beneficial activities from the both structures. For this purpose, inflammatory responses of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated RAW264.7 cells were analyzed. Nitric oxide (NO) production, inducible NO synthase (iNOS) and tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$) mRNA expression, and the intracellular inflammatory signaling cascade were measured. Interestingly, PPP strongly inhibited NO release in a dose-dependent manner. To further investigate this anti-inflammatory activity, we identified molecular pathways by immunoblot analyses of nuclear fractions and whole cell lysates prepared from LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells with or without PPP pretreatment. The nuclear levels of p50, c-Jun, and c-Fos were significantly inhibited when cells were exposed to PPP. Moreover, according to the luciferase reporter gene assay after cotransfection with either TRIF or MyD88 in HEK293 cells, NF-${\kappa}B$-mediated luciferase activity dose-dependently diminished. Additionally, it was confirmed that PPP dampens the upstream signaling cascade of NF-${\kappa}B$ and AP-1 activation. Thus, PPP inhibited Syk, Src, and TAK1 activities induced by LPS or induced by overexpression of these genes. Therefore, our results suggest that PPP displays anti-inflammatory activity via inhibition of Syk, Src, and TAK1 activity, which may be developed as a novel anti-inflammatory drug.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.115-123
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• 2007

Immobilization of contaminants in subsurface environment is one of the major processes that determine their fate. Especially, immobilization by oxidative-coupling reactions, which is irreversible in the bio-chemical reactions and results in a significant reduction of toxicity, can be successfully applied for the remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater more effectively than conventional degradation. As a catalyst of this oxidative-coupling reaction, manganese oxide has many advantages in practical aspects as compared to microorganisms or oxidoreductive enzymes extracted from microorganisms, fungi, or plants. This paper is to present recent research achievements on the treatment mechanisms of various organic contaminants by manganese oxide. Especially, treatment methods of non-reactive organic compounds to Mn oxide are the main focus; i.e., application of reaction mediator, PAHs treatment method, combination with an appropriate pretreatment such as reduction using $Fe^0$, which suggests the potential of a wide range of engineering application. Concerning the natural carbon cycle processes, immobilization and stabilization by oxidative coupling reaction can be effectively applied as a environmentally-friend remediation method especially for aromatic contaminants which possess a high resistance to degradation.