• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.50-55
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• 2014

An oxidized starch was modified for surface sizing via etherification and esterification. Propylene oxide (PO), sodium monochloroacetate (SMCA), and acrylonitrile (AN) were used as etherification, and vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), maleic anhydride (MA), fumaric acid (FA), and itaconic acid (ITA) were used for esterification. Esterification and etherification of starch decreased both Brookfield viscosity and Brabender viscosity substantially even though the solids level was increased by 2% from 14 to 16%. Surface sizing performance of starches in tensile strength, stiffness and compressive strength was improved by esterification and etherification of the oxidized starch. Especially, SMCA etherification was found to be the most effective modification method.

• Carbon letters
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 2011

This study experimentally investigated dicyclohexylammonium 2-cyanoacrylate (CA) as a potential comonomer for polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon fiber precursors. The P(AN-CA) copolymers with different CA contents (0.19-0.78 mol% in the feed) were polymerized using solution polymerization with 2,2-azobis(isobutyronitrile) as an initiator. The chemical structure and composition of P(AN-CA) copolymers were determined by proton nuclear magnetic resonance and elemental analysis, and the copolymer composition was similar to the feeding ratio of the monomers. The effects of CA comonomer on the thermal properties of its copolymers were characterized differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in nitrogen and air atmospheres. The DSC curves of P(AN-CA) under nitrogen atmosphere indicated that the initiation temperature for cyclization of nitrile groups was reduced to around $235^{\circ}C$. The heat release and the activation energy for cyclization reactions were decreased in comparison with those of PAN homopolymers. On the other hand, under air atmosphere, the P(AN-CA) with 0.78 mol% CA content showed that the initiation temperature of cyclization was significantly lowered to $160.1^{\circ}C$. The activation energy value showed 116 kJ/mol, that was smaller than that of the copolymers with 0.82 mol% of itaconic acids. The thermal stability of P(AN-CA), evidenced by thermogravimetric analyses in air atmosphere, was found higher than PAN homopolymer and similar to P(AN-IA) copolymers. Therefore, this study successfully demonstrated the great potential of P(AN-CA) copolymers as carbon fiber precursors, taking advantages of the temperature-lowering effects of CA comonomers and higher thermal stability of the CA copolymers for the stabilizing processes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.1193-1201
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• 2012

The analysis and quantification of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) is crucial, as they initiate the biological removal of ammonia-nitrogen from sewage. Previous methods for analyzing the microbial community structure, which involve the plating of samples or culture media over agar plates, have been inadequate because many microorganisms found in a sewage plant are unculturable. In this study, to exclusively detect AOB, the analysis was carried out via denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis using a primer specific to the amoA gene, which is one of the functional genes known as ammonia monooxygenase. An AOB consortium (S1 sample) that could oxidize an unprecedented 100% of ammonia in 24 h was obtained from sewage sludge. In addition, real-time PCR was used to quantify the AOB. Results of the microbial community analysis in terms of carbon utilization ability of samples showed that the aeration tank water sample (S2), influent water sample (S3), and effluent water sample (S4) used all the 31 substrates considered, whereas the AOB consortium (S1) used only Tween 80, D-galacturonic acid, itaconic acid, D-malic acid, and $_L$-serine after 192 h. The largest concentration of AOB was detected in S1 ($7.6{\times}10^6copies/{\mu}l$), followed by S2 ($3.2{\times}10^6copies/{\mu}l$), S4 ($2.8{\times}10^6copies/{\mu}l$), and S3 ($2.4{\times}10^6copies/{\mu}l$).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.652-655
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• 2005

This paper describes the development of an enzymatic assay system for the identification of inhibitors of isocitrate lyase (ICL), one of the key enzymes of the glyoxylate cycle that is considered as a new target for antifungal drugs. A 1.6 kb DNA fragment encoding the isocitrate lyase from Candida albicans ATCC10231 was amplified by PCR, cloned into a vector providing His-Patch-thioredoxin-tag at the N-terminus, expressed in Escherichia coli, and purified by metal chelate affinity chromatography. The molecular mass of the purified ICL was approximately 62 kDa, as determined by SDS-PAGE, and the enzyme activity was directly proportional to incubation time and enzyme concentration. The effects of itaconate-related compounds on ICL activity were also investigated. Among them, itaconic acid, 3-nitropropionate, and oxalate had strong inhibitory activities with $IC_{50}$ values of 5.8, 5.4 and $8.6\;{mu}g/ml$, respectively. These inhibitors also exhibited antifungal activity on YPD agar media containing acetate as a sole carbon source, albeit at high concentration. The results indicate that the C. albicans ICL may be a regulatory enzyme playing a crucial role in fungal growth and is a prime target for antifungal agents.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.216-233
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• 2021

In this work, Rhizophora spp. particleboard phantoms were made using SPI-based adhesives, modified with sodium hydroxide and itaconic acid polyamidoamine-epichlorohydrin (0, 5, 10, and 15 wt%). An X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging system was used to ascertain the CT numbers and density distribution profiles of the particleboards. The SPI-based/NaOH/IA-PAE/Rhizophora spp. particleboard phantoms with 15 wt% IA-PAE addition level had the highest solid content, flexural strength, flexural modulus, and internal bonding strength of 36.06 ± 1.08%, 18.61 ± 0.38 Nmm^-2, 7605.76 ± 0.89 Nmm^-2, and 0.463 ± 0.053 Nmm^-2, respectively. The moisture content, mass density, water absorption, and dimensional stability were 6.93 ± 0.27%, 0.962 ± 0.037 gcm^-3, 22.36 ± 2.47%, and 10.90 ± 0.86%, respectively. The results revealed that the mass attenuation coefficients and effective atomic number values within the 16.59-25.26 keV photon energy region, were close to the calculated XCOM values in water, with a p-value of 0.077. Moreover, the CT images showed that the dissimilarities in the discrepancy of the profile density decreased as the IA-PAE concentrations increased. Therefore, these results support the appropriateness of the SPI-based/NaOH/IA-PAE/Rhizophora spp. particleboard with 15 wt% IA-PAE adhesive as a suitable tissue-equivalent phantom material for medical health applications.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.18 no.4 s.94
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• pp.569-576
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• 2006

PC-type copolymers were synthesized using MPEG(polyethylene glycol methyl ether methacrylate, Mn=2080) to different mole ratios of mono-carboxylic acid(AA : acylic acid). The mole ratios of AA were 2, 3, 4 and PC-type terpolymers were synthesized using mono-, dicarboxylic acid(ITA : itaconic acid MAL : maleic acid) with the same graft chain. To investigate effects of PC-type co-, ter-polymers on the hydration of cement experiments involving FT-IR, XRD, DSC, SEM have been analysed with cement paste specimens to 1, 3, 28 day. The hydration reaction rate of cement paste was slightly delayed at 1 day, due to increase in molar ratio of [AA]/[MPEG], it was recovered in the days after and the copolymer was more active than the terpolymer, because of low carboxylic acid content PC-type copolymers applied 2AA-type were fastest copolymer on hydration reaction of cement paste to 3 day and the more AA mole ratios increased, the more hydration was retarded.