• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.137-145
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• 1994

Amino acid (AA) substituted diets had no influence on rumen levels of total volatile fatty acids (VFA), ammonia and ${\alpha}$-amino-N, but tended to increase molar proportions of isovalerate and counts of total viable AA utilizing and celluloytic bacteria in the rumen as compared with the control urea diet. The AA diets did not affect daily flow to the duodenum of dry matter (DM), organic mater (OM) and acid detergent fibre (ADF), and rumen digestibility of these nutrients. However, the AA diets, in particular the 10 essential AA (EAA) diet improved total digestibility of DM, OM and ADF by decreasing faecal output of these fractions. Although N flow to the duodenum and N retention were not affected with the dietary treatments, duodenal bacterial flow appeared to increase by the AA diets when it was estimated by means of 2,6-diaminopimelic acid (DAP) and nucleic acid-purine bases (PB) as markers. The results suggest that AA supplements to a urea diet could improve feed utilization by stimulating microbial activity and proliferation in the rumen but and increased microbial activity per se is not necessarily associated with improvement of feed conversion.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.474-481
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• 2013

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate the application of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to the wastewater treatment systems employed in the Living Building Challenge. Methods: I reviewed a range of information on decentralized wastewater treatment technologies such as composting toilets, constructed wetlands, recirculating biofilters, membrane bioreactors, and MFCs. Results: The Living Building Challenge is a set of standards to make buildings more eco-friendly using renewable resources and self-treating water systems. Although there are various decentralized wastewater treatment technologies available, MFCs have been considered an attractive future option for a decentralized system as used in the Living Building Challenge. MFCs can directly convert substrate energy to electricity with high conversion efficiency at ambient and even at low temperatures. MFCs do not require energy input for aeration if using open-air cathodes. Moreover, MFCs have the potential for widespread application in locations lacking water and electrical infrastructure Conclusions: This paper demonstrated the feasibility of MFCs as a novel decentralized wastewater treatment system employed in the Living Building Challenge.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.305-313
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• 2018

A microbial consortium, TMC7, was enriched for the degradation of natural lignocellulosic materials under high temperature. TMC7 degraded 79.7% of rice straw during 15 days of incubation at $65^{\circ}C$. Extracellular xylanase was effectively secreted and hemicellulose was mainly degraded in the early stage (first 3 days), whereas primary decomposition of cellulose was observed as of day 3. The optimal temperature and initial pH for extracellular xylanase activity and lignocellulose degradation were $65^{\circ}C$ and between 7.0 and 9.0, respectively. Extracellular xylanase activity was maintained above 80% and 85% over a wide range of temperature ($50-75^{\circ}C$) and pH values (6.0-11.0), respectively. Clostridium likely had the largest contribution to lignocellulose conversion in TMC7 initially, and Geobacillus, Aeribacillus, and Thermoanaerobacterium might have also been involved in the later phase. These results demonstrate the potential practical application of TMC7 for lignocellulosic biomass utilization in the biotechnological industry under hot and alkaline conditions.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.853-861
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• 2010

High substrate costs decrease the profitability of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) production, and thus low-cost carbon substrates coming from agricultural and industrial residuals are tested for the production of these biopolymers. Among them, crude glycerol, formed as a by-product during biodiesel production, seems to be the most promising source of carbon. The object of this study was to characterize the mixed population responsible for the conversion of crude glycerol into PHAs by cultivation-dependent and -independent methods. Enrichment of the microbial community was monitored by applying the Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis (RISA), and the identification of community members was based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing of cultivable species. Molecular analysis revealed that mixed populations consisted of microorganisms affiliated with four bacterial lineages: ${\alpha}$, ${\gamma}$-Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroides. Among these, three Pseudomonas strains and Rhodobacter sp. possessed genes coding for polyhydroxyalkanoates synthase. Comparative analysis revealed that most of the microorganisms detected by direct molecular analysis were obtained by the traditional culturing method.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.225-234
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• 2006

Characteristics of electricity production from major fermentation products (acetate, propionate and butyrate) were evaluated in a microbial fuel cell (MFC). For each substrate, batch and continuous experiments were performed. The batch test result indicated that coulombic efficiency depended on the resistance connected in MFC circuit. With acetate, coulombic efficiency were 87% at $20{\Omega}$, but decreaced to 45% at$220{\Omega}$. In continuous tests, maximum power densities obtained was 220 Q with acetate. The maximum power densities of butyrate, acetate and propionate were 6.8, 6.1, and $5.2mW/m^2$, respectively. Propionate and butyrate were converted into acetate producing high currents. $H_2$ produced during butyrate and propionate probably used to produce electricity. In conclusion, butyrate conversion into acetate was faster than that of propionate with higher electricity production. If the production of propionate is inhibited during fermentation, anaerobically fermented liguor may be effectively applied for MFC.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.58-67
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• 2020

Microbial electrosynthesis has recently been considered a potentially sustainable biotechnology for converting carbon dioxide (CO₂) into valuable biochemicals. In this study, bioelectrochemical acetate production from CO₂ was studied in an H-type two-chambered reactor system with an anaerobic microbial consortium. Metal-rich mud flat was used as the inoculum and incubated electrochemically for 90 days under a cathode potential of -1.1 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). Four consecutive batch cultivations resulted in a high acetate concentration and productivity of 93 mmol/L and 7.35 mmol/L/day, respectively. The maximal coulombic efficiency (rate of recovered acetate from supplied electrons) was estimated to be 64%. Cyclic voltammetry showed a characteristic reduction peak at -0.2~-0.4 V, implying reductive acetate generation on the cathode electrode. Furthermore, several electroactive acetate-producing microorganisms were identified based on denaturing- gradient-gel-electrophoresis (DGGE) and 16S rRNA sequence analyses. These results suggest that the mud flat can be used effectively as a microbial source for bioelectrochemical CO₂ conversion.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.213-217
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• 2009

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been known as a new alternative energy conversion technology for treating wastewater and producing electricity simultaneously. A MFC converts the chemical energy of the organic compounds to electrical energy through microbial catalysis at the anode under anaerobic conditions. To examine the performance of MFC, in this work, the characteristics of the efficiency of wastewater treatment and generation of electricity was evaluated for sewage. When acetate as a carbon source was added into the sewage, the removal efficiency of COD was increased from 75.7% to 88.2% and the voltage was increased significantly from 0.22 V to 0.4 V. The influence of distance between anode and cathode was examined and the effect of the surface area of anode was investigated under the various external resistances. It was found that the maximum power density was $610mW/m^2$ and power generation was effective when the distance between the electrodes was shorter and the surface area of the anode was smaller.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.746-752
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• 2011

A composite microbial system (XDC-2) was used to pretreat and hydrolyze corn stalk to enhance anaerobic digestion. The results of pretreatment indicated that sCOD concentrations of hydrolysate were highest (8,233 mg/l) at the fifth day. XDC-2 efficiently degraded the corn stalk by nearly 45%, decreasing the cellulose content by 22.7% and the hemicellulose content by 74.1%. Total levels of volatile products peaked on the fifth day. The six major compounds present were ethanol (0.29 g/l), acetic acid (0.55 g/l), 1,2-ethanediol (0.49 g/l), propionic acid (0.15 g/l), butyric acid (0.22 g/l), and glycerine (2.48 g/l). The results of anaerobic digestion showed that corn stalks treated by XDC-2 produced 68.3% more total biogas and 87.9% more total methane than untreated controls. The technical digestion time for the treated corn stalks was 35.7% shorter than without treatment. The composite microbial system pretreatment could be a cost-effective and environmentally friendly microbial method for efficient biological conversion of corn stalk into bioenergy.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.12
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• pp.4527-4542
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• 2023

The present microbial reinforcement of rock and soil exhibits limitations, such as uneven reinforcement effectiveness and low calcium carbonate generation rate, resulting in limited solidification strength. This study introduces electroosmosis as a standard microbial grouting reinforcement technique and investigates its solidification effects on microbial-reinforced uranium tailings. The most effective electroosmosis effect on uranium tailings occurs under a potential gradient of 1.25 V/cm. The findings indicate that a weak electric field can effectively promote microbial growth and biological activity and accelerate bacterial metabolism. The largest calcium carbonate production occurred under the gradient of 0.5 V/cm, featuring a good crystal combination and the best cementation effect. Staged electroosmosis and electrode conversion efficiently drive the migration of anions and cations. Under electroosmosis, the cohesion of uranium tailings reinforced by microorganisms increased by 37.3% and 64.8% compared to those reinforced by common microorganisms and undisturbed uranium tailings, respectively. The internal friction angle is also improved, significantly enhancing the uniformity of reinforcement and a denser and stronger microscopic structure. This research demonstrates that MICP technology enhances the solidification effects and uniformity of uranium tailings, providing a novel approach to maintaining the safety and stability of uranium tailings dams.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.20-24
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• 2004

Cloned myo-inositol-1-phosphate synthase (INOS) of Drosophila melanogaster was expressed in Escherichia coli, and purified using a His-affinity column. The purified INOS required NAD$\^$+/ for the conversion of glucose-6-phosphate to inositol-1-phosphate. The optimum pH for myo-inositol-1-phosphate synthase is 7.5, and the maximum activity was measured at 40$^{\circ}C$. The molecular weight of the native enzyme, as determined by gel filtration, was approximately M$\_$r/ 271,000${\pm}$15,000. A single subunit of approximately M$\_$r/ 62,000${\pm}$5,000 was detected upon SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The Michaelis ($K_{m}$) and dissociation constants for glucose-6-phosphate were 3.5 and 3.7 mM, whereas for the cofactor NAD$\^$+/ these were 0.42 and 0.4 mM, respectively.