• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.39-42
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• 1999

Perfluoropolymers represent the ultimate resistance to hostile chemical environments and high service temperature, attributed to the presence of fluorine in the polymer backbone, i.e. to the high bond energy of C-F and C-C bonds of fluorocarbons. Copolymers of Tetrafluoroethylene (TEE) and 2, 2, 4Trifluoro-5Trifluorometoxy- 1, 3Dioxole (TTD), commercially known as HYFLON AD, are amorphous perfluoropolymers with glass transition temperature (Tg)higher than room temperature, showing a thermal decomposition temperature exceeding 40$0^{\circ}C$. These polymer systems are highly soluble in fluorinated solvents, with low solution viscosities. This property allows the preparation of self-supported and composite membranes with desired membrane thickness. Symmetric and asymmetric perfluoropolymer membranes, made with HYFLON AD, have been prepared and evaluated. Porous and not porous symmetric membranes have been obtained by solvent evaporation with various processing conditions. Asymmetric membranes have been prepared by th wet phase inversion method. Measure of contact angle to distilled water have been carried out. Figure 1 compares experimental results with those of other commercial membranes. Contact angles of about 120$^{\circ}$for our amorphous perfluoropolymer membranes demonstrate that they posses a high hydrophobic character. Measure of contact angles to hexandecane have been also carried out to evaluate the organophobic character. Rsults are reported in Figure 2. The observed strong organophobicity leads to excellent fouling resistance and inertness. Porous membranes with pore size between 30 and 80 nanometers have shown no permeation to water at pressures as high as 10 bars. However high permeation to gases, such as O2, N2 and CO2, and no selectivities were observed. Considering the porous structure of the membrane, this behavior was expected. In consideration of the above properties, possible useful uses in th field of gas- liquid separations are envisaged for these membranes. A particularly promising application is in the field of membrane contactors, equipments in which membranes are used to improve mass transfer coefficients in respect to traditional extraction and absorption processes. Gas permeation properties have been evaluated for asymmetric membranes and composite symmetric ones. Experimental permselectivity values, obtained at different pressure differences, to various single gases are reported in Tab. 1, 2 and 3. Experimental data have been compared with literature data obtained with membranes made with different amorphous perfluoropolymer systems, such as copolymers of Perfluoro2, 2dimethyl dioxole (PDD) and Tetrafluorethylene, commercialized by the Du Pont Company with the trade name of Teflon AF. An interesting linear relationship between permeability and the glass transition temperature of the polymer constituting the membrane has been observed. Results are descussed in terms of polymer chain structure, which affects the presence of voids at molecular scale and their size distribution. Molecular Dyanmics studies are in progress in order to support the understanding of these results. A modified Theodoru- Suter method provided by the Amorphous Cell module of InsightII/Discover was used to determine the chain packing. A completely amorphous polymer box of about 3.5 nm was considered. Last but not least the use of amorphous perfluoropolymer membranes appears to be ideal when separation processes have to be performed in hostile environments, i.e. high temperatures and aggressive non-aqueous media, such as chemicals and solvents. In these cases Hyflon AD membranes can exploit the outstanding resistance of perfluoropolymers.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.105-114
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• 2007

The most advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are based on reactivity of strong and non-selective oxidants such as hydroxyl radical (${\cdot}OH$). Decomposition of typical DNAPL chlorinated compounds (TCE, PCE) using various advanced oxidation processes ($UV/Fe^{3+}$-chelating agent/$H_2O_2$ process, $UV/H_2O_2$ process) was approached to develop appropriate methods treating chlorinated compound (TCE, PCE) for further field application. $UV/H_2O_2$ oxidation system was most efficient for degrading TCE and PCE at neutral pH and the system could remove 99.92% of TCE after 150 min reaction time at pH 6($[H_2O_2]$ = 147 mM, UVdose = 17.4 kwh/L) and degrade 99.99% of PCE within 120 min ($[H_2O_2]$ = 29.4 mM, UVdose = 52.2 kwh/L). Whereas, $UV/Fe^{3+}$-chelating agent/$H_2O_2$ system removed TCE and PCE ca. > 90% (UVdose = 34.8 kwh/L, $[Fe^{3+}]$ = 0.1 mM, [Oxalate] = 0.6 mM, $[H_2O_2]$ = 147 mM) and 98% after 6hrs (UVdose = 17.4 kwh/L, $[Fe^{3+}]$ = 0.1 mM, [Oxalate] = 0.6 mM, $[H_2O_2]$ = 29.4 mM), respectively. We improved the reproduction system with addition of UV light to modified Fenton reaction by increasing reduction rate of $Fe^{3+}$ to $Fe^{2+}$. We expect that the system save the treatment time and improve the removal efficiencies. Moreover, we expect the activity of low molecular organic compounds such as acetate or oxalate be effective for maintaining pH condition as neutral. This oxidation system could be an economical, environmental friendly, and practical treatment process since the organic compounds and iron minerals exist in nature soil conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korea Environmental Mutagen Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.34-63
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• 2003

Occupational and environmental exposure to manganese continue to represent a realistic public health problem in both developed and developing countries. Increased utility of MMT as a replacement for lead in gasoline creates a new source of environmental exposure to manganese. It is, therefore, imperative that further attention be directed at molecular neurotoxicology of manganese. A Need for a more complete understanding of manganese functions both in health and disease, and for a better defined role of manganese in iron metabolism is well substantiated. The in-depth studies in this area should provide novel information on the potential public health risk associated with manganese exposure. It will also explore novel mechanism(s) of manganese-induced neurotoxicity from the angle of Mn-Fe interaction at both systemic and cellular levels. More importantly, the result of these studies will offer clues to the etiology of IPD and its associated abnormal iron and energy metabolism. To achieve these goals, however, a number of outstanding questions remain to be resolved. First, one must understand what species of manganese in the biological matrices plays critical role in the induction of neurotoxicity, Mn(II) or Mn(III)? In our own studies with aconitase, Cpx-I, and Cpx-II, manganese was added to the buffers as the divalent salt, i.e., $MnCl_2$. While it is quite reasonable to suggest that the effect on aconitase and/or Cpx-I activites was associated with the divalent species of manganese, the experimental design does not preclude the possibility that a manganese species of higher oxidation state, such as Mn(III), is required for the induction of these effects. The ionic radius of Mn(III) is 65 ppm, which is similar to the ionic size to Fe(III) (65 ppm at the high spin state) in aconitase (Nieboer and Fletcher, 1996; Sneed et al., 1953). Thus it is plausible that the higher oxidation state of manganese optimally fits into the geometric space of aconitase, serving as the active species in this enzymatic reaction. In the current literature, most of the studies on manganese toxicity have used Mn(II) as $MnCl_2$ rather than Mn(III). The obvious advantage of Mn(II) is its good water solubility, which allows effortless preparation in either in vivo or in vitro investigation, whereas almost all of the Mn(III) salt products on the comparison between two valent manganese species nearly infeasible. Thus a more intimate collaboration with physiochemists to develop a better way to study Mn(III) species in biological matrices is pressingly needed. Second, In spite of the special affinity of manganese for mitochondria and its similar chemical properties to iron, there is a sound reason to postulate that manganese may act as an iron surrogate in certain iron-requiring enzymes. It is, therefore, imperative to design the physiochemical studies to determine whether manganese can indeed exchange with iron in proteins, and to understand how manganese interacts with tertiary structure of proteins. The studies on binding properties (such as affinity constant, dissociation parameter, etc.) of manganese and iron to key enzymes associated with iron and energy regulation would add additional information to our knowledge of Mn-Fe neurotoxicity. Third, manganese exposure, either in vivo or in vitro, promotes cellular overload of iron. It is still unclear, however, how exactly manganese interacts with cellular iron regulatory processes and what is the mechanism underlying this cellular iron overload. As discussed above, the binding of IRP-I to TfR mRNA leads to the expression of TfR, thereby increasing cellular iron uptake. The sequence encoding TfR mRNA, in particular IRE fragments, has been well-documented in literature. It is therefore possible to use molecular technique to elaborate whether manganese cytotoxicity influences the mRNA expression of iron regulatory proteins and how manganese exposure alters the binding activity of IPRs to TfR mRNA. Finally, the current manganese investigation has largely focused on the issues ranging from disposition/toxicity study to the characterization of clinical symptoms. Much less has been done regarding the risk assessment of environmenta/occupational exposure. One of the unsolved, pressing puzzles is the lack of reliable biomarker(s) for manganese-induced neurologic lesions in long-term, low-level exposure situation. Lack of such a diagnostic means renders it impossible to assess the human health risk and long-term social impact associated with potentially elevated manganese in environment. The biochemical interaction between manganese and iron, particularly the ensuing subtle changes of certain relevant proteins, provides the opportunity to identify and develop such a specific biomarker for manganese-induced neuronal damage. By learning the molecular mechanism of cytotoxicity, one will be able to find a better way for prediction and treatment of manganese-initiated neurodegenerative diseases.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.749-756
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• 2007

Phosphorylation on serine/threonine or tyrosine residues of target proteins is an essential and significant regulatory mechanism in signal transduction during many cellular and life processes, including spermatogenesis, oogenesis and fertilization. In the present work, we reported the isolation and characterization of mouse testis-specific serine/threonine kinase 5 (Tssk5), which contains four alternatively spliced variants including, Tssk5$\alpha$, Tssk5$\beta$, Tssk5$\gamma$ and Tssk5$\delta$. Moreover, the locus of Tssk5 is on chromosome 14qC3 and the four variants had a similar high expression in the testis and the heart; however, had a low expression in other tissues, except for Tssk5$\alpha$ which also had comparably high expression in the spleen. Each variant of Tssk5 expression began in the testis 16 days after birth. Aside from TSSK5$\alpha$, the other isoforms have an insertion of ten amino acid residues (RLTPSLSAAG) in region VIb (HRD domain) (His-Arg-Asp). Moreover, only TSSK5$\alpha$ exhibited kinase activity and consistently, a further Luciferase Reporter Assay demonstrated that TSSK5$\beta$, TSSK5$\gamma$ and TSSK5$\delta$ cannot be stimulated at the CREB/CRE responsive pathway in comparison to TSSK5$\alpha$. These findings suggest that TSSK5$\beta$, TSSK5$\gamma$, TSSK5$\delta$ may be pseudokinases due to the insertion, which may damage the structure responsible for active kinase activity. Pull-down assay experiments indicated that TSSK5$\beta$, TSSK5 $\gamma$ and TSSK5$\delta$ can directly interact with TSSK5$\alpha$. In summary, these four isoforms with similar expression patterns may be involved in spermatogenesis through a coordinative way in testis.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.3437-3443
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• 2013

The polymer insulators have been extensively used as an alternate material of ceramic insulators. However, when they are used in practical conditions, there are many problems of decreasing performance and shortening lifetime due to the exposures of degradation factors applied from the outdoor situations. Accordingly, the analysis of polymer degradations has been getting influential too late as one of important subjects for improvements of safety and reliability. Heat, water treatments are arbitrary simulated for finding out the initiations and processes of surface degradation on the polymer surface. Especially, this study is focused on the chemical changes properties. From the analysis of hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecular structures, final modeling of surface degradation is accomplished. We checked the contact angle depending on heat and moisturized accelerated degradation and ran an XPS analysis to check the mechanism change of the surface of the PCB polymer composite. The surface that had a tendency to attract moisture showed a decrease in the contact angle and generated a large amount of carboxyl($-COO^*$) radicals. The hydrophobized surface showed an increase in the contact angle and had a stable chemical composition constituted of the breakaway of oxygen radicals and the formation of double bond by carburization.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.289-300
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• 2011

Atomistic origins of carbon solubility into silicates are essential to understand the effect of carbon on the properties of silicates and evolution of the Earth system through igneous and volcanic processes. Here, we investigate the atomic structure and NMR properties of dissolved carbon in enstatite using Raman spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. Raman spectrum for enstatite synthesized with 2.4. wt% of amorphous carbon at 1.5 GPa and $1,400^{\circ}C$ shows vibrational modes of enstatite, but does not show any vibrational modes of $CO_2$ or ${CO_3}^{2-}$. The result indicates low solubility of carbon into enstatite at a given pressure and temperature conditions. Because $^{13}C$ NMR chemical shift is sensitive to local atomic structure around carbon and we calculated $^{13}C$ NMR chemical shielding tensors for C substituted enstatite cluster as well as molecular $CO_2$ using quantum chemical calculations to give insights into $^{13}C$ NMR chemical shifts of carbon in enstatite. The result shows that $^{13}C$ NMR chemical shift of $CO_2$ is 125 ppm, consistent with previous studies. Calculated $^{13}C$ NMR chemical shift of C is ~254 ppm. The current calculation will alllow us to assign potential $^{13}C$ NMR spectra for the enstatite dissolved with carbon and thus may be useful in exploring the atomic environment of carbon.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.720-732
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• 2001

Skeletal muscle is of major economic importance since it is finally converted to meat for consumers. The increase in meat production with low costs of production may be achieved by optimizing muscle growth, whereas a high meat quality requires, among other factors, the optimization of intramuscular glycogen and fat stores. Thus, research in energy metabolism aims at controling muscle metabolism, but also liver and adipose tissue metabolism in order to optimize energy partitioning in favour of muscles. Liver is characterized by high anabolic and catabolic rates. Metabolic enzymes are regulated by nutrients through short-term regulation of their activities and long-term regulation of expression of their genes. Consequences of liver metabolic regulation on energy supply to muscles may affect protein deposition (and hence growth) as well as intramuscular energy stores. Adipose tissues are important body reserves of triglycerides, which result from the balance between lipogenesis and lipolysis. Both processes depend on the feeding level and on the nature of nutrients, which indirectly affect energy delivery to muscles. In muscles, the regulation of rate-limiting nutrient transporters, of metabolic enzyme activities and of ATP production, as well as the interactions between nutrients affect free energy availability for muscle growth and modify muscle metabolic characteristics which determine meat quality. The growth of tissues and organs, the number and the characteristics of muscle fibers depend, for a great part, on early events during the fetal life. They include variations in quantitative and qualitative nutrient supply to the fetus, and hence in maternal nutrition. During the postnatal life, muscle growth and characteristics are affected by the age and the genetic type of the animals, the feeding level and the diet composition. The latter determines the nature of available nutrients and the rate of nutrient delivery to tissues, thereby regulating metabolism. Physical activity at pasture also favours the orientation of muscle metabolism, towards the oxidative type. Consequently, breeding systems may be of a great importance during the postnatal life. Research is now directed towards the determination of individual tissue and organ energy requirements, a better knowledge of nutrient partitioning between and within organs and tissues. The discovery of new molecules (e. g. leptin), of new molecular mechanisms and of more powerful techniques (DNA chips) will help to achieve these objectives. The integration of the different levels of knowledge will finally allow scientists to formulate new types of diets adapted to sustain a production of high quality meat with lower costs of production.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1405-1417
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• 2006

The geometrical structures, potential energy surfaces, and energetics for the ligand exchange reactions of tetracoordinated platinum $(PtY_2L_2\;:\;Y,\;L=Cl^-,\;OH^-,\;OH_2,\;NH_3)$ complexes in the ligand-solvent interaction systems were investigated using the ab initio Hartree-Fock (HF) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) methods. The potential energy surfaces for the ligand exchange reactions used for the conversions of $(PtCl_4\;+\;H_2O)^{^\ast_\ast}\;to\;[PtCl_3(H_2O)\;+\;Cl^-]$ and $[Pt(NH_3)_2Cl_2\;+\;H_2O]$$[Pt(NH_3)_2Cl_2\;+\;H_2O]$ to $[Pt(NH_3)_2Cl(H_2O)\;+\;Cl^-] $ were investigated in detail. For these two exchange reactions, the transition states $([PtY_2L_2{\cdot}{\cdot}{\cdot}L^\prime])^{^\ast_\ast} $ correspond to complexes such as $(PtCl_4{\cdot}{\cdot}{\cdot}H_2O)^{^\ast_\ast}$ and $[Pt(NH_3)_2Cl_2{\cdot}{\cdot}{\cdot}H_2O]^{^\ast_\ast}$, respectively. In the transition state, $([PtCl_4{\cdot}{\cdot}{\cdot}H_2O]^{^\ast_\ast}$ and $[Pt(NH_3)_2Cl_2{\cdot}{\cdot}{\cdot}H_2O]]^{^\ast_\ast})$ have a kind of 6-membered $(Pt-Cl{\cdot}{\cdot}{\cdot}HOH{\cdot}{\cdot}{\cdot}Cl)$ and $(Pt-OH{\cdot}{\cdot}{\cdot}Cl{\cdot}{\cdot}{\cdot}HN)$ interactions, respectively, wherein a central Pt(II) metal directly combines with a leaving $Cl^-$ and an entering $H_2O$. Simultaneously, the entering $H_2O$ interacts with a leaving $Cl^-$. No vertical one metal-ligand interactions $([PtY_2L_2{\cdot}{\cdot}{\cdot}L^\prime]) $ are found at the axial positions of the square planar $(PtY_2L_2)$ complexes, which were formed via a vertically associative mechanism leading to $D_{3h}$ or $C_{2v}$-transition state symmetry. The geometrical structure variations, molecular orbital variations (HOMO and LUMO), and relative stabilities for the ligand exchange processes are also examined quantitatively. Schematic diagrams for the dissociation reactions of {PtCl4(H2O)n(n=2,4)} into {$PtCl_3(H_2O)_{(n-2)}\;+\;Cl^-(H_2O)_2$} and the binding energies {$PtCl_4(H_2O)_n$(n = 1-5)} of $PtCl_4$ with water molecules are drawn.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.338-348
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• 2017

Protein hydrolysates derived from plants and animals having antioxidant, suppression of hypertension, immunodulatory, alleviation of pain, and antimicrobial activity has been known as playing important role like hormone. This study was performed to optimize the hydrolysis of protein of sea of cucumber by a flavourzyme. The ranges of processes were the reaction temperature of 40 to $60^{\circ}C$, pH 6 to 8, and enzyme concentration 0.5 to 1.5%(w/v). As a result, the optimization of process was determined at temperature of $48-50^{\circ}C$, pH of 7.0-7.2, and enzyme concentration of 1.0-1.1%(w/v), and degree of hydrolysis was 43-45 at above conditions. The molecular weight of hydrolysate was distributed to 500-3,500 Da and showed typical peptides. Inhibition concentration ($IC_{50}$) of peptides of DPPH radical scavenging activity, Superoxide anion radical scavenging activity, Hydroxy radical scavenging activity, $Fe^{2+}$ cheating activity was 1.25, 3.40, 10.3, and 22.11 mg/mL, respectively. Therefore, we expect that those products are useful as functional food ingredients.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.330-338
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• 2015

The influences of fluorescence, scattering, and flocculation in turbid material by light scattering of N-propyl-N,N-dimethylethanolamine, fluorescence agent and absorption agent were interpreted for the scattered fluorescence intensity and wavelength. They have been studied the molecular properties by the spectroscopy of laser induced fluorescence (LIF) and flocculation. The effects of optical properties in scattering media have been found by the optical parameters(${\mu}_s$, ${\mu}_a$, ${\mu}_t$). Flocculation is an important step in many solid-liquid separation processes and is widely used. When two particles approach each other, interactions of several colloid particles can come into play which may have major effect on the flocculation and LIF process. The values of scattering coefficient ${\mu}_s$ are large by means of the increasing scattering of scatterer, The values have been found that the slope decays exponentially as a function of concentration from laser source to detector by our experimental result. It may also aid in designing the best model for oil chemistry, bio-pharmaceutical, laser medicine and application of medical engineering on LIF and coagulation in particle transport mode.