• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.23-27
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• 2018

Increased intracellular levels of $Ca^{2+}$ are generally thought to negatively regulate lipolysis in mature adipocytes, whereas store-operated $Ca^{2+}$ entry was recently reported to facilitate lipolysis and attenuate lipotoxicity by inducing lipophagy. Transient receptor potential mucolipin1 (TRPML1), a $Ca^{2+}$-permeable non-selective cation channel, is mainly expressed on the lysosomal membrane and plays key roles in lysosomal homeostasis and membrane trafficking. However, the roles of TRPML1 in lipolysis remains unclear. In this study, we examined whether the channel function of TRPML1 induces lipolysis in mature adipocytes. We found that treatment of mature adipocytes with ML-SA1, a specific agonist of TRPML1, solely upregulated extracellular glycerol release, but not to the same extent as isoproterenol. In addition, knockdown of TRPML1 in mature adipocytes significantly reduced autophagic flux, regardless of ML-SA1 treatment. Our findings demonstrate that the channel function of TRPML1 partially contributes to lipid metabolism and autophagic membrane trafficking, suggesting that TRPML1, particularly the channel function of TRPML1, is as therapeutic target molecule for treating obesity.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.39-53
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• 2016

In this study, polysufone (PSf) was used as a base polymer to synthesize sulfonated polysulfone (SPSf) and aminated polysulfone (APSf) as cation and anion exchange polymers, respectively. Then the ion exchange polymers were coated onto the surface of commercial carbon electrodes. To compare the capacitive deionization (CDI) and membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) processes, the pristine carbon electrodes and ionic polymer coated electrodes were tested under various operating conditions such as feed flow rate, adsorption time at fixed desorption time, and feed concentration, etc., in terms of effluent concentration and salt removal efficiency. The MCDI was confirmed to be superior to the CDI process. The performance of MCDI was 2-3 times higher than that of CDI. In particular, the reverse desorption potential was a lot better than zero potential. Typically, the salt removal efficiency 100% for 100 mg/L NaCl was obtained for MCDI at feed flow rate of 15 ml/min and adsorption/desorption time of 3 min/1 min and applied voltages 1.0 V for adsorption and -0.3 V for desorption process, and for 500 mg/L, the salt removal efficiency 91% was observed.

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.2487-2495
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• 2018

Inspired by the specific amino acid sequence Asn-Pro-Ala (NPA) of water channel aquaporins (AQPs), we fabricated polyamide (PA) nanofiltration (NF) membranes by introducing reduced glutathione (GSH) in interfacial polymerization (IP) method. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), zeta potential and static water contact angle measurement were employed to characterize the chemical composition, morphology, electronegativity and hydrophilicity of the NF membranes. The water flux of GSH/PIP-TMC NF membrane reached $32.00L\;m^{-2}h^{-1}$ at 0.2 MPa, which was approximately twice than that of pristine PIP-TMC NF membrane when the ratio of GHS to piperazidine (PIP) was 40% during IP process. More water channels were built as GSH was embedded into PA layer. The fabricated NF membranes also took on potent rejection for dyes and $Na_2SO_4$. This study presents a simple and facile method to simulate water channels-based biological materials which may find potential application in water treatment.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.253-261
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• 2022

Numerical modelling of an integrated Carbon NanoTube (CNT) membrane is only achievable if probable deformations and realistic alterations from a perfect CNT membrane are taken into account. Considering the possible forms of CNTs, bending is one of the most probable deformations in these high aspect ratio nanostructures. Hence, investigation of effect associated with bent CNTs are of great interest. In the present study, molecular dynamics simulation is utilized to investigate fluid flow dynamics in deformed CNT membranes, specifically when the tube cross section is not affected. Bending in armchair (5,5) CNT was simulated using Tersoff potential, prior to flow rate investigation. Also, to study effect of inclined entry of the CNT to the membrane wall, argon flow through generated inclined CNT membranes is examined. The results show significant variation in both cases, which can be interpreted as counter-intuitive, since the cross section of the CNT was not deformed in either case. The distribution of fluid-fluid and fluid-wall interaction potential is investigated to explain the anomalous behavior of the flow rate versus bending angle.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.3096-3102
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• 2011

Vanilloid receptor, TRPV1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid 1) is a non-selective cation channel that responds to a variety of pain-eliciting material including capsaicin, pH, heat. Although, membrane trafficking of TRPV1 was not much known so far, TRPV1 was reported to interact with FIP3 (family of Rab11 interacting protein 3). FIP3 was identified as one of Rab11 interacting proteins that is recently reported important in membrane trafficking of several channel proteins directly or indirectly. Therefore, in this study, we examined the role of Rab11 in the membrane trafficking of TRPV1 using cell biological and biochemical techniques. Rab11 was found really colocalized with TRPV1 based on the result of confocal microscopy. However, GST-pulldown assay, one of biochemical technique, found that Rab11 did not interact with TRPV1. Although Rab11 does not interact with TRPV1 directly, we hypothesized that Rab11 is indeed involved in the membrane trafficking of TRPV1. In order to examine further the role of Rab11 in the membrane trafficking of TRPV1, the expression of TRPV1 on the membrane was examined when the expression of Rab11 was decreased down to about 50% by siRNA technique and found decreased significantly. From this result, we can conclude that Rab11 is involved in the membrane trafficking of TRPV1 in a way of including FIP3.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.55-56
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• 1996

Heterophase polymer system has been attractive for a potential applicability to gas separation membrane material. It has been known that there is a trade-off between gas permeability and its selectivity in common polymers. Therefore, the heterophase polymer can be an alternative for a gas separation membrane material because its transport properties can be readily controlled by blending of two different polymers. The transport properties of immiscible polymer blends strongly depend upon the intrinsic transport properties of corresponding polymers. Another important factor to determine the transport properties is their morphology: volume fraction, size and shape of dispersed phase. Although the effect of the volume fraction of the dispersed phase on the transport properties has been widely investigated, the size and shape effects have been paid attention very much. In an immiscible polymer blend of two polymers, its morphology is primarily controlled by its volume fraction of dispersed phase. Therefore, the effect of the size of the dispersed phase can be hardly seen. Therefore, a block copolymer has been commonly employed to control their morphology when each block is miscible with one or the other phase. In this work, gas transport properties will be measured by varying the morphology of the heterophase polymer membrane. The transport properties will be interpreted in terms of their morphology. The effect of the volume fraction of the PI phase and, in particular, its size effect will be investigated experimentally and theoretically.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.415-432
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• 2017

The nonlinear aerodynamic instability of a tensioned plane orthotropic membrane structure is theoretically investigated in this paper. The interaction governing equation of wind-structure coupling is established by the Von $K\acute{a}rm\acute{a}n's$ large amplitude theory and the D'Alembert's principle. The aerodynamic force is determined by the potential flow theory of fluid mechanics and the thin airfoil theory of aerodynamics. Then the interaction governing equation is transformed into a second order nonlinear differential equation with constant coefficients by the Bubnov-Galerkin method. The critical wind velocity is obtained by judging the stability of the second order nonlinear differential equation. From the analysis of examples, we can conclude that it's of great significance to consider the orthotropy and geometrical nonlinearity to prevent the aerodynamic instability of plane membrane structures; we should comprehensively consider the effects of various factors on the design of plane membrane structures; and the formula of critical wind velocity obtained in this paper provides a more accurate theoretical solution for the aerodynamic stability of the plane membrane structures than the previous studies.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2018

In this study, vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) was used to treat high-salinity wastewater (concentration about 17%) discharged by chlor-alkali plant after resin regeneration. The feasibility of VMD for the treatment of real saline wastewater by using Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) microporous plate membrane with a pore diameter of $0.2{\mu}m$ was investigated. The effects of critical operating parameters such as feed temperature, velocity, vacuum degree and concentration on the permeate water flux were analyzed. Numerical simulation was used to predict the flux and the obtained results were in good agreement with the experimental data. The results showed that an increase in the operating conditions could greatly promote the permeate water flux which in turn decreased with an increase in the concentration. When the concentration varied from 17 to 25%, the permeate water flux dropped marginally with time indicating that the concentration was not sensitive to the decrease in permeate water flux. The permeate water flux decreased sharply until zero due to the membrane fouling resistance as the concentration varied from 25 to 26%. However, the conductivity of the produced water was well maintained and the average value was measured to be $4.98{\mu}s/cm$. Furthermore, a salt rejection of more than 99.99% was achieved. Overall, the outcome of this investigation clearly indicates that VMD has the potential for treating high-salinity wastewater.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.127-142
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• 2013

In order to investigate the significance of "salting-out" and "pore swelling" effects on the nanofiltration of neutral solutes, rejection properties of two NF ceramic and polymeric membranes were studied with single polyethyleneglycol (PEG) solution and mixed PEG/inorganic electrolyte solutions. For both membranes, the rejection rate of PEG was found to decrease significantly in the presence of ions. In the case of the ceramic membrane (rigid pores), this phenomenon was imputed to the sole partial dehydration of PEG molecules induced by the surrounding ions. This assumption was confirmed by the lowering of the PEG rejection rates which followed the Hofmeister series. Experimental data were used to compute the resulting decrease in the Stokes radius of PEG molecules in the presence of the various salts. Concerning the polymeric membrane, the decrease in the rejection rate was found to be systematically higher than for the ceramic membrane. The additional decrease was then ascribed to the swelling of the pores. The experimental data of rejection rates were then used to compute the variation in the mean pore radius in the presence of the various salts. The pore swelling phenomenon due to accumulation of counterions inside pores was supported by electrokinetic charge density measurements.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.543-551
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• 2017

Membrane fouling in membrane bioreactor (MBR) remains a primary challenge for its wider application. The focus of this study to investigate the influence of iron distribution in activated sludge on gel layer fouling in MBR. Significant reduction in the transmembrane pressure (TMP) rise rates was observed in the presence of iron as result of retarding the gel layer formation time. The spatial distribution of iron had a significant impact on the stratification structure of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) fractions, such as proteins (PN) and polysaccharides (PS). A mitigation of PN or PS from the supernatant to the EPS inner layers was observed in the presence of iron. Compared with the control reactor, the reduction in PN and PS of the supernatant and lower PN/PS rates of the LB-EPS were beneficial to decrease the membrane fouling potential during the gel layer formation. Consequently, the iron addition managed to control gel layer fouling could be a useful strategy in MBR.