• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.59-64
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• 2017

In clinical diagnosis, it's well known that the abnormal level of uric acid (UA) in human body is implicated in diverse human diseases, for instance, chronic heart failure, gouty arthritis, diabetes, and so on. As a primary method, an isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) has been used to obtain the accurate quantity of UA in blood or serum and also develop the certificated reference material (CRM) so as to provide a SI-traceability to clinical laboratories. Due to the low solubility of UA in water, an ammonium hydroxide ($NH_4OH$) has been considered as a promising solvent to increase the solubility of UA that enables the preparation of both UA and its isotope standard solution for next IDMS-based absolute quantification. But, because of using this $NH_4OH$ solvent, it gives rise to the unwanted degradation of UA. In this study, we sought to optimize condition for the stability of UA in $NH_4OH$ solution by varying the mole ratios of UA to $NH_4OH$, followed by ID-LC-MRM analysis. In addition, we also inspected minutely the effect of the storage temperatures. Additionally, we also performed the quantitative analysis of UA in the KRISS serum certificated reference material (CRM, 111-01-02A) with diverse mixing ratios of UA to $NH_4OH$ and then compared those values to its certification value. Based on our experiments, adjusting the mole ratio of 1/2 ($UA/NH_4OH$) with the storage temperature of $-20^{\circ}C$ is an effective way to secure both the solubility and stability of UA in $NH_4OH$ solution for next IDMS-based quantification of UA in serum.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.183-188
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• 2011

Pentaerytritol triacrylate (PETA) was synthesized by a condensation reaction between pentaerytritol and acrylic acid. The highest yield of PETA was obtained when heptane was used as a solvent under the 1:4 mole ratio of pentaerytritol and acrylic acid. The 6-functional urethane acrylates(UA) were also synthesized by a condensation reaction between PETA and diisocyanate. Cured films were prepared from the mixtures of UA oligomer, reactive diluents and UV initiator to investigate their physical properties. The thermal stability of the aliphatic urethane acrylate was better than that of the aromatic urethane acrylate. The UA-2 showed good hardness and scratch resistance properties while the UA-l with a high degree of curing density exhibited a better chemical resistance. All the UA oligomers showed fairly good adhesion strengths but the other physical properties of UA-3 were poor due to its low curing density.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.738-744
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• 2006

In order to utilize the condensation heat of refrigerants in condenser on the absorption chiller system, the solution cooled condenser (SCC) was proposed using the weak solution of absorber as a cooling medium. The increase of COP with the increase of UA of the solution cooled condenser was approximately 0.009 in maximum with single effect one, and is about maximum 0.008 in occasion of double effect one with series flow compared to that without. In the case of heat exchanger, effectiveness is about 0.85, it's increments are 0.008 and 0.0072, respectively. And solution cooled condenser is more effective device in the single effect absorption system than double effect system for the principle of operation. On the other hand, as the solution split ratio increases when the value of UA is fixed, COP is increased and as the solution split ratio increases when the value of UA is fixed, COP is increased. If the flow rate of cooling water or the value of UA is reduced in order to increases the heat recovery of solution cooled condenser, heat recovery of solution cooled condenser is increased a little but COP is decreased as the system pressure is increased.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.274-281
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• 2017

This paper describes the simple fabrication of an electrode modified with electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (ERGO) for the simultaneous electrocatalytic detection of dopamine (DA), ascorbic acid (AA), and uric acid (UA). ERGO was formed on a glassy carbon (GC) electrode by the reduction of graphene oxide (GO) using linear sweep voltammetry. The ERGO/GC electrode was formed by subjecting a GO solution ($1mg\;mL^{-1}$ in 0.25 M NaCl) to a linear scan from 0 V to -1.4 V at a scan rate of $20mVs^{-1}$. The ERGO/GC electrode was characterized by Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, contact angle measurements, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. The electrochemical performance of the ERGO/GC electrode with respect to the detection of DA, AA, and UA in 0.1 M PBS (pH 7.4) was investigated by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and amperometry. The ERGO/GC electrode exhibited three well-separated voltammetric peaks and increased oxidation currents during the DPV measurements, thus allowing for the simultaneous and individual detection of DA, AA, and UA. The detection limits for DA, AA, and UA were found to be 0.46, 77, and $0.31{\mu}M$ respectively, using the amperometric i-t curve technique, with the S/N ratio being 3.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.39 no.8 s.169
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• pp.677-690
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• 2006

The LH-OAT (Latin Hypercube One factor At a Time) method for sensitivity analysis and SCE-UA (Shuffled Complex Evolution at University of Arizona) optimization method were applied for the automatic calibration of SWAT model in Bocheong-cheon watershed. The LH-OAT method which combines the advantages of global and local sensitivity analysis effectively identified the sensitivity ranking for the parameters of SWAT model over feasible parameter space. Use of this information allows us to select the calibrated parameters for the automatic calibration process. The performance of the automatic calibration of SWAT model using SCE-UA method depends on the length of calibration period, the number of calibrated parameters, and the selection of statistical error criteria. The performance of SWAT model in terms of RMSE (Root Mean Square Error), NSEF (Nash-Sutcliffe Model Efficiency), RMAE (Relative Mean Absolute Error), and NMSE (Normalized Mean Square Error) becomes better as the calibration period and the number of parameters defined in the automatic calibration process increase. However, NAE (Normalized Average Error) and SDR (Standard Deviation Ratio) were not improved although the calibration period and the number of calibrated parameters are increased. The result suggests that there are complex interactions among the calibration data, the calibrated parameters, and the model error criteria and a need for further study to understand these complex interactions at various representative watersheds.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.3-11
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• 2020

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Oxidative stress causes cell damage and death, which contribute to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Urolithin A (UA), a gut microbial-derived metabolite of ellagitannins and ellagic acid, has high bioavailability and various health benefits such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. However, it is unknown whether it has protective effects against oxidative stress-induced cell death. We investigated whether UA ameliorates H₂O₂-induced neuronal cell death. MATERIALS/METHODS: We induced oxidative damage with 300 μM H₂O₂ after UA pretreatment at concentrations of 1.25, 2.5, and 5 μM in SK-N-MC cells. Cytotoxicity and cell viability were determined using the CCK-8 assay. The formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was measured using a 2,7-dichlorofluorescein diacetate assay. Hoechst 33342 staining was used to characterize morphological changes in apoptotic cells. The expressions of apoptosis proteins were measured using Western blotting. RESULTS: UA significantly increased cell viability and decreased intracellular ROS production in a dose-dependent manner in SK-N-MC cells. It also decreased the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and the expressions of cytochrome c, cleaved caspase-9, cleaved caspase-3, and cleaved PARP. In addition, it suppressed the phosphorylation of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. CONCLUSIONS: UA attenuates oxidative stress-induced apoptosis via inhibiting the mitochondrial-related apoptosis pathway and modulating the p38 MAPK pathway, suggesting that it may be an effective neuroprotective agent.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.116-122
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• 2014

This work deals with the effects of different oligomers, monomers, photoinitiators, and steel plates on the variation of gloss for UV coated steel plates at $20^{\circ}$ and $60^{\circ}$ (ASTM D523). The gloss value was more significantly varied with $20^{\circ}$ angle as compared with $60^{\circ}$. No substantial change in gloss was observed for the type of single oligomer; however, the gloss varied with the mixing ratios of oligomers, type and mixing ratio of monomers, type and concentration of photoinitiator, and type of steel plate. The maximum gloss value was observed when the mixing ratio of polyurethane acrylate (UA) to epoxy acrylate (EA) was 70 : 30, the mixing ratio of trimethylolpropantriacrylate (TMPTA) to tetrahydrofurfurylacrylate (THFA) was 5 : 5, the content of the mixed oligomer (UA : EA = 70 : 30) was 90 wt%, respectively. Darocur MBF of liquid type showed better gloss property than the solid type of Irgacure 184, and the gloss was decreased as the concentration of Darocur MBF increased from 1 to 4 wt%. Regarding the type of steel plate, GI steel plate showed better gloss property as compared with EG and primer-coated steel plates. The maximum gloss values of 95 GU and 120 GU, respectively, at $20^{\circ}$ and $60^{\circ}$ angles throughout the parametric study in the absence of leveling agents enhancing the gloss.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2006

To designate rural landscape spatially, land use and topographic features for 383 of "Ri"s or "Dong", which is a basic administrative unit in Korea, were analyzed using GIS application. We have categorized rural landscape into three types such as agricultural, natural and urban landscape by land use. On the basis of spatial landscape pattern, rural area could be classified into 6 groups of Mountainous area (MA), Mountainous village area (MV), Developing mountainous village area (DM), Plain agricultural area (PA), Developing plain village area (DP) and Urbanized area (UA) according to the ratios of land for agricultural and urban use as the criteria. In MA, the ratio of upland area including orchard was slightly larger than that of paddy, while that of paddy was about 1.5 times larger than upland in other groups. Forested area was distributed more than two-thirds among natural landscape area in MA, MV and DM. In plain types (PA and DP), the ratio of irrigated paddy was extremely larger than partially irrigated paddy and the ratio of water body area among the natural landscape area was two times as large as that of forested area. The ratio of land for industrial and livestock facilities among urban landscape area were 20% or more in MV, DM and DP, and it means that these facilities are mainly distributed in the developing ru ral area where residents and industry are closely related each other. According to the relative ratio of sloped land of 6 categorized areas, the MA area have lots of land with E and F slopes and MV and DM have all grades of sloped land evenly distributed in relative to other types of rural landscape. It has been showed that PA, DP and UA occupied more than two-thirds of land with A or B slope. In case of the analysis of topological distribution in 6 types of rural landscape, there were overwhelmingly lager highland areas in MA. Conclusively, we have confirmed that 6 types of rural landscape classified by land use pattern in 3 categorized areas such as agricultural, natural and urban landscape area would be useful for the management of rural area. For development of sustainable agriculture and the preservation of rural amenity, proper management ways should be properly applied according to rural landscape patterns.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.15-27
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• 2012

SWMM (Storm Water Management Model) has been widely used in the world as a typical model for flood runoff analysis of urban areas. However, the calibration of the model is difficult, which is an obstacle to easy application. The purpose of the study is to develop an automatic calibration module of the SWMM linked with SCE-UA (Shuffled Complex Evolution-University of Arizona) algorithm. Generally, various objective functions may produce different optimization results for an optimization problem. Thus, five single objective functions were applied and the most appropriate one was selected. In addition to the objective function, another objective function was used to reduce peak flow error in flood simulation. They form a multiple objective function, and the optimization problem was solved by determination of Pareto optima. The automatic calibration module was applied to the flood simulation on the catchment of the Guro 1 detention reservoir and pump station. The automatic calibration results by the multiple objective function were more excellent than the results by the single objective function for model assessment criteria including error of peak flow and ratio of volume between observed and calculated flow. Also, the verification results of the model calibrated by the multiple objective function were reliable. The program could be used in various flood runoff analysis in urban areas.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.3159-3161
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• 2013

Aim: We designed this study to investigate the neutrophil lymphocyte ratio as a biomarker in distinguishing colonic polyps which are neoplastic or non-neoplastic. Materials and Methods: One hundred and twenty-five patients with colonic polyps were enrolled into the study. The following data were obtained from a computerized patient registry database: mean platelet volume (MPV), uric acid (UA), platelet count (PC), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) and the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR). Exclusion criteria were active infectious disease, hematological disorders, and malignancies. Colonic polyps divided into two groups as neoplastic polyps (tubular adenoma, villous adenoma, tubulovillous adenoma) and non-neoplastic polyps (hyperplastic polyps, inflammatory pseudopolyps etc). The relationship between colonic polyp type and NLR was evaluated with statistical analysis. Results: There were 67 patients (53.6%) with neoplastic and 58 (46.4%) patients with non-neoplastic polyps. Mean NLRs of neoplastic and non-neoplastic groups were respectively $3.32{\pm}2.54$ and $2.98{\pm}3.16$ (P<0.05). Conclusion: Although sensitivity and specificity are not high, NLR may be used as a biomarker of neoplastic condition of colonic polyps.