• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.33-45
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Ginseng extract (GSE) and taurine (TR) are widely used antifatigue resources in functional foods. However, the mechanism underlying the antifatigue effects of GSE and TR are still unclear. Hence, we investigated whether GSE and TR have synergistic effects against fatigue in mice. MATERIALS/METHODS: L6 cells were treated with different concentrations of TR and GSE, and cell viability was determined using 2-(4-iodophenyl)-3-(4-nitrophenyl)-5-(2,4-disulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium. Oxidative stress was analyzed by immunocytochemistry using MitoTracker^TM Red FM and an anti-8-oxoguanine antibody. Respiratory gas analysis was performed to investigate metabolism. Expression of an activated protein kinase was analyzed using immunohistochemistry. Gene expression of cluster of differentiation 36 and pyruvate dehydrogenase lipoamide kinase isozyme 4 was measured using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Mice were orally administered TR, GSE, or their combination for 30 days, and then fatigue-related parameters, including lactate, blood urea nitrogen, and glycogen, were measured after forced swimming. RESULTS: TR and GSE reduced oxidative stress levels in hydrogen peroxide-stimulated L6 cells and enhanced the oxygen uptake and lipid metabolism in mice after acute exercise. After oral administration of TR or GSE for 30 days, the fatigue-related parameters did not change in mice. However, the mice administered GSE (400 mg/kg/day) alone for 30 days could swim longer than those from the other groups. Further, no synergistic effect was observed after the swimming exercise in mice treated with the TR and GSE combination for 30 days. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our data suggest that TR and GSE may exert antifatigue effects in mice after acute exercise by enhancing oxygen uptake and lipid oxidation.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.362-367
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• 2023

Recently, research and development of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) membranes are progressing in the direction of thinning to reduce prices and improve performance. Demand for hydrogen-powered vehicles for commercial vehicles is also increasing, and their durability should be five times greater than those for passenger vehicles. Despite the thinning of the membranes, the durability of the membranes must be increased five times, so the improvement of the durability of the membranes has become more important. Since the acceleration durability evaluation time also needs to be shortened, the protocol using oxygen instead of air in the existing protocol was applied to a 10 ㎛ thin membrane to evaluate durability. The accelerated durability test (Open circuit voltage holding) was terminated at 720 hours. If the air-based department of energy (DOE) protocol was used, a lifespan of 450,000 km of driving hours would be expected, with a durability of about 1,500 hours. During the chemical durability evaluation, the active area of the electrode decreased by 51%, suggesting that catalyst degradation had an effect on membrane durability. Reducing the catalyst degradation rate is expected to increase membrane durability.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.517-522
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• 2023

A chemical/mechanical durability test of polymer membrane evaluation method is used in which air and hydrogen are supplied to the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and wet/dry is repeated in the open circuit voltage (OCV) state. In this protocol, when wet/dry is repeated, voltage increase/decrease is repeated, resulting in electrode degradation. When the membrane durability is excellent, the number of voltage changes increases and the evaluation is terminated due to electrode degradation, which may cause a problem that the original purpose of membrane durability evaluation cannot be performed. In this study, the same protocol as the department of energy (DOE) was used, but oxygen was used instead of air as the cathode gas, and the wet/dry time and flow rate were also increased to increase the chemical/mechanical degradation rate of the membrane, thereby shortening the durability evaluation time of the membrane to improve these problems. The durability test of the Nafion 211 membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was completed after 2,300 cycles by increasing the acceleration by 2.6 times using oxygen instead of air. This protocol also accelerated degradation of the membrane and accelerated degradation of the electrode catalyst, which also had the advantage of simultaneously evaluating the durability of the membrane and the electrode.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.77-84
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• 2023

In the agricultural sector, power sources are being developed that use alternative energy sources such as electric tractors and hydrogen tractors, away from internal combustion engine tractors. As parts such as engines and transmissions used in conventional internal combustion engine tractors are replaced with motors and batteries, the center of gravity changes, and thus the risk of rollover should be considered. The purpose of this study is to analyze the overturn angle of the main parts of the electric tractor through dynamic simulation to minimize the overturn accident and to derive the optimal arrangement of parts to improve stability. A total of nine dynamics simulations were conducted by designing three components of the PTO motor, drive motor and the battery pack, and three factors of the arrangement method. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that Type3 Level3, in which the drive motor and the PTO motor are located at the front and rear of the tractor, and two battery packs are located in the middle of the tractor, has a high rollover angle. As a result of this study, the stability increased as the center of gravity was placed backward and located below. Future research needs to be done to find the optimal location of parts considering their performance and placement efficiency.

• Clean Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 2024

Globally, the demand for electric vehicles has surged due to greenhouse gas regulations related to climate change, leading to an increase in the production of used batteries as a consequence of the battery life issue. This study aims to selectively leach and recover valuable metal lithium from the cathode material of spent LFP (LiFePO₄) batteries among lithium-ion batteries. Generally, the use of inorganic acids results in the emission of toxic gases or the generation of large quantities of wastewater, causing environmental issues. To address this, research is being conducted to leach lithium using organic acids and other leaching agents. In this study, selective leaching was performed using the organic acid methane sulfonic acid (MSA, CH₃SO₃H). Experiments were conducted to determine the optimal conditions for selectively leaching lithium by varying the MSA concentration, pulp density, and hydrogen peroxide dosage. The results of this study showed that lithium was leached at approximately 100%, while iron and phosphorus components were leached at about 1%, verifying the leaching efficiency and the leaching rates of the main components under different variables.

• Journal of Korea Foresty Energy
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.25-33
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• 2002

One of the critical problems to preserve books and documents in libraries and archives is the deterioration. Some of previous results showed that the major cause of paper deterioration was the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of the cellulose in paper fibres and aging rate of acidic paper was faster than that of alkaline paper. Therefore, It is necessary to remove the acid in the paper for reducing the rate of paper deterioration. It has been reported to extend the useful life of acidic paper by three to five times. Recently, It has been recognized the need for an effective method of deacidifying large quantities of books and document. However, in the previous many reports little attention was paid to the effect of paper additives. In this paper, We carried out experiment about the effect of additives on paper aging and the effect of deacidification by the gaseous ethanolamines (monoehtanolamine, diethanolamine, triehtanolamine). In result, it was found that the strength of aging was in the order of the alum＋rosin＞alum ＞AKD＞ control and the rate of deacidification was in the order of the monoethanolamine＞diethanolamine＞triethanolamine. The treatment with the gaseous ethanolamines caused decreasing of brightness and dropping of fold endurances. However, deacidification by combination treatment of the various gaseous ehtnaolamines prevented from decreasing of brightness and dropping of folding endurances.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.32-41
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• 2001

We measured the fluxes of COD, TN and 55 in addition to composition and quality of sediment in Komso Bay, West Coast of Korea. The fluxes of TN, SS and COD were measured during flood tide and ebb tide in April and August, 2000. Denitrification rates in the sediments was also measured by direct produced $N_2$ gas technique on April and August from 1999 to 2000 in the same sea area. The composition of the sediments were 0.33~5.67 % of sand, 20.2~25.6 of gravel and 68.7~77.0 % of silt. Ignition loss of the sediments were 6.58~7.50 %. The concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the sediments were 0.028~0.326 mg/gㆍdry and oxidation reduction potential of the sediments were -28~-15 mV Diurnal fluxes of COD, total nitrogen, and suspended solids with tidal current and denitrification rate in the tidal flat have been determined in Komso Bay The diurnal net flux of COD was same in April. While 14.4 ton COD/hr of net influx into the tidal flat was recorded in August. The diurnal net influx of total nitrogen was 0.16 ton N/hr in April and 1.13 ton N/hr in August. The diurnal net influx of suspended solids was 0.05 ton SS/hr in April, and also net influx of suspended solids was 0.29 ton SS/hr in August. The overall purification ability of the tidal flat were estimated 0.00~5.69 g COD/$m^2/day$, 0.06~0.45 g N/m²/day and 0.02~0.12 g SS/$m^2/day$ for COD, TN and SS, respectively. Denitrification rate was 0.009~1.720 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$ (average 0.702 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$) in April and 0.033~0.133 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$ (average 0.077 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$) in August, 1999. 0.000~l.909 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$ (average 0.756 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$) in April, 0.000~1.691 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$ (average 0.392 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$) in August, 2000. Even with a wide range of denitrification rate depending on the sampling location and studied periods, the average denitrification rate was estimated 0.482 m mole ${N_2}/m^2/day$ in the tidal flat of Komso Bay.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.3.1-3.6
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• 2009

Introduction: GTPases known as translation factor play a vital role as ribosomal subunit assembly chaperone. The bacterial Obg proteins ($Spo{\underline{0B}}$-associated ${\underline{G}}TP$-binding protein) belong to the subfamily of P-loop GTPase proteins and now it is considered as one of the new target for antibacterial drug. The majority of bacterial Obgs have been commonly found to be associated with ribosome, implying that these proteins may play a fundamental role in ribosome assembly or maturation. In addition, one of the experimental evidences suggested that Bacillus subtilis Obg (BsObg) protein binds to the L13 ribosomal protein (BsL13) which is known to be one of the early assembly proteins of the 50S ribosomal subunit in Escherichia coli. In order to investigate binding mode between the BsObg and the BsL13, protein-protein docking simulation was carried out after generating 3D structure of the BsL13 structure using homology modeling method. Materials and Methods: Homology model structure of BsL13 was generated using the EcL13 crystal structure as a template. Protein-protein docking of BsObg protein with ribosomal protein BsL13 was performed by DOT, a macro-molecular docking software, in order to predict a reasonable binding mode. The solvated energy minimization calculation of the docked conformation was carried out to refine the structure. Results and Discussion: The possible binding conformation of BsL13 along with activated Obg fold in BsObg was predicted by computational docking study. The final structure is obtained from the solvated energy minimization. From the analysis, three important H-bond interactions between the Obg fold and the L13 were detected: Obg:Tyr27-L13:Glu32, Obg:Asn76-L13:Glu139, and Obg:Ala136-L13:Glu142. The interaction between the BsObg and BsL13 structures were also analyzed by electrostatic potential calculations to examine the interface surfaces. From the results, the key residues for hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interaction between the two proteins were predicted. Conclusion and Prospects: In this study, we have focused on the binding mode of the BsObg protein with the ribosomal BsL13 protein. The interaction between the activated Obg and target protein was investigated with protein-protein docking calculations. The binding pattern can be further used as a base for structure-based drug design to find a novel antibacterial drug.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.558-567
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• 1989

The synthesis of methanol from carbon dioxide and hydrogen was studied for various compositions of Cu/ZnO catalyst system. Effect of the composition ratio of CuO and ZnO on the catalytic activity in the above reaction and the relationship between the activity and the characteristics of the catalysts were explained from the result of surface area measurements, SEM, XRD, and XPS. The major products of the reaction were methanol and carbon monoxide. The selectivity to methanol increased with increase of the copper oxide content in the catalyst up to CuO: ZnO = 30:70 weight ratio, and decreased rapidly when the content is above 70%. SEM and BET measurements, indicate that this point corresponds to the increasing point of the catalyst crystallite size and the decreasing point of the surface area. As to the Cu/Cu + Zn atomic ratio, the surface concentration of copper measured by XPS decreased remarkably when the copper oxide content in catalyst was higher than 50%. All the unreduced catalysts had almost same binding energy of Cu(2P3) level, but the binding energy for $Cu(2P^3)$ level of reduced catalysts was lowered than that of calcined catalysts. The surface copper species which was in the maximum amount when the CuO:ZnO composition in the catalyst was 30:70, existed as zero valent copper. This result agreed with the experimental result that the highest rate of methanol formation was observed when the CuO content in the catalyst was 30%. It was postulated that these reduced catalysts performed with a relatively strong basicity because the formation rate of acetone was higher than that of propylene in isopropanol decomposition as measured in a pulse type reactor.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.259-267
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• 2010

The catalytic wet oxidations of the wastewater containing azo dye Reactive Black 5(RB5) with heterogeneous catalyst of CuO have been carried out to investigate the effects of temperature($190{\sim}230^{\circ}C$) and catalyst concentration(0.00~0.20 g/l) on the removals of colour and total organic carbon TOC. The wastewater colour was measured with spectrophotometer, and the oxidation rate was estimated with TOC. About 90% of colour was removed during 120 min in thermal degradation of the RB5 wastewater at $230^{\circ}C$, while TOC was not removed at all. As increasing reaction temperature and catalyst concentration, the removal rates of colour and TOC increased in the catalytic wet oxidations of RB5 wastewater. The effects of catalyst were already considerable even at 0.01 g CuO/l, while the removal rates of colour and TOC increased negligibly with increasing the catalyst concentration above 0.05 g CuO/l. The initial destruction rates of the wastewater colour have shown the first-order kinetics with respect to the wastewater colour. TOC changes during catalytic wet oxidations have been well described with the global model, in which the easily degradable TOC was distinguished from non-degradable TOC of the wastewater. The impacts of reaction temperature on the destruction rate of the wastewater colour and TOC could be described with Arrhenius relationship. Activation energies of the colour removal reaction in thermal degradation, wet oxidation, and catalytic wet oxidation(0.20 g CuO/l) of the RB5 wastewater were 108.4, 78.3 and 74.1 kJ/mol, respectively. The selectivity of wastewater TOC into the non-degradable intermediates relative to the end products in the catalytic wet oxidations of RB5 wastewater was higher compared to that in phenol wet oxidations.