• Macromolecular Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2003

A molecular-thermodynamic model is developed for the salt-induced protein precipitation. The protein molecules interact through four intermolecular potentials. An equation of state is derived based on the statistical mechanical perturbation theory with the modified Chiew's equation for the fluid phase, Young's equation for the solid phase as the reference system and a perturbation based on the protein-protein effective two body potential. The equation of state provides an expression for the chemical potential of the protein. In a single protein system, the phase separation is represented by fluid-fluid equilibria. The precipitation behaviors are simulated with the partition coefficient at various salt concentrations and degree of pre-aggregation effect for the protein particles. In a binary protein system, we regard the system as a fluid-solid phase equilibrium. At equilibrium, we compute the reduced osmotic pressure-composition diagram in the diverse protein size difference and salt concentrations.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.337-341
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• 2010

The modified simultaneous differential staining technique, which enables double staining of cartilage and bones, needs to be improved to prevent soft tissues from being damaged during the staining process. Key factors influencing the extent to which soft tissues are damaged include the fixative used, macerating time, potassium hydroxide concentration, incubation temperature and the removal of skin from specimens. Here we describe a protocol that enables the hardening of tissues during bleaching and maceration. We also describe a method for objectively measuring rates of cartilage and bone growth. The use of formalin as a fixative rendered soft tissues more rigid due to the resulting chemical bonds formed between proteins. Blotted specimens were immersed in 1% potassium hydroxide (KOH) and incubated at $37^{\circ}C$ for 1 day (smaller specimens) or 2-3 days (larger specimens). The 1% KOH solution was also used as the diluent solution for the subsequent immersion in a graded series of 30%, 50%, 70%, 90%, 100% glycerol solutions, a procedure that made soft tissues even more transparent and hardened. It was not necessary to remove the skin of specimens shorter than 2 cm, since the macerating solution could easily penetrate their thin skin layer and continuously remove those pigments hindering visibility. Since excessive osmosis is another factor that can damage soft tissues in the macerating process by causing the rupture of those cells not able to withstand the osmotic pressure, here it was minimized by balancing the salt concentration between the interior and exterior of cells with the addition of 0.9% sodium chloride (NaCl) in the macerating solution. Finally, to determine the proportions of cartilage and bone growth, photographs of the stained specimens were taken with a dissecting microscope and sections corresponding to the cartilage and bones were cut out from the printed pictures and weighed. Our results show that this method is suitable for the objective evaluation of bone and cartilage growth.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.135-142
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• 1983

$PGE_2$ and $PGF_{2{\alpha}}$ are known to act similarly in a number of animal tissues. They both facilitate regression of corpus luteum(Poyser, 1972; Fuch et al, 1974; Coudert et at, 1974) and stimulate contraction of uterine muscle (Laudanski et al, 1977; Porter et al, 1979; Hollingsworth et al, 1980). It is, however, not known whether these two prostaglandins exert similar actions in osmotic fragility of erythrocytes (Rasmussen et al, 1975) and $PGF_{2{\alpha}}$ alters conformation of membrane proteins (Meyers aud Swislocki, 1974). The former effect may not be mediated through changes in c- AMP concentration in the cell, since the adenylate cyclase activity in human erythrocyte is extremely low (Rodan et al, 1976; Sutherland et al, 1962) and the latter effect implies that physical state (or fluidity) of the membrane is altered by $PGF_{2{\alpha}}$. The present study was undertaken to elucidate mechanisms of action of $PGE_2$ and $PGF_{2{\alpha}}$ on the human erythocyte membrane by examining their effects on osmotic fragility and $Ca^{++}$ binding to the membrane fragments. The results are summarized as follows: 1) $PGE_2$ and $PGF_{2{\alpha}}$ increased osmotic fragility at concentrations above $10^{11}\;M$, the effect being similar for both hormones. The concentration of NaCl for 100% hemolysis was $1/16{\sim}1/17\;M$ in the presence of $10^{11}\;M\;PGE_2$ or $PGF_{2{\alpha}}$ and 1/18 M in the absence of the hormone (control). 2) When erythrocytes were suspended in 1/15 M NaCl solution, $44.2{\pm}4.3%$ of cells were hemolyzed. Addition of $10^{12}\;M\;PGE_2$ or $PGF_{2{\alpha}}$ did not increase hemolysis. When the concentration of the hormones was increased to $10^{11}\;M$, however the degree of hemolysis increased markealy to about 80%. No further increase in hemolysis was observed at concentration of the hormones above $10^{11}\;M$. 3) The additional hemolysis due to $10^{11}\;M\;PGE_2$ and $PGF_{2{\alpha}}$ appeared to he identical regardless of absence or presence of $Ca^{++}\;(0.5{\sim}10\;mM)$ in the suspending medium. 4) In the absence of prostaglandin, the binding of $Ca^{++}$ to the erythrocyte membrane increased curvilinearly as the $Ca^{++}$ concentration increased up to 5 mM above which it leveled off. A similar dependence of $Ca^{++}$ binding on the $Ca^{++}$ concentration was observed in the presence of $10^{11}\;M\;PGE_2$ or $PGF_{2{\alpha}}$, however, the amount of $Ca^{++}$ bound at a given $Ca^{++}$ concentration was significantly higher than in the absence of the hormones. 5) As in the hemolysis, $PGE_2$ and $PGF_{2{\alpha}}$ did not affect the $Ca^{++}$ binding at a concentration of $10^{12}\;M$, but increased it by about 100% at concentration above $10^{11}\;M$. These result indicate that both tile osmotic fragility of erythrocyte and the $Ca^{++}$ binding to the erythrocyte membrane are similarly enhanced by $PGE_2$ and $PGF_{2{\alpha}}$, but these two effects are not causally related. It is, therefore, concluded that the prostaglandin-induced hemolysis is not directly associated with alterations of the $Ca^{++}$ content in the membrane.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.23-33
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• 2023

Sucrose (suc) is a disaccharide that consists of glucose (glu) and fructose (fru). It is a carbohydrate source that acts as a nutrient molecule and a molecular signal that regulates gene expression and alters metabolites. This study aimed to evaluate whether suc-specific signaling induces an increase in bioactive compounds by exogenous suc absorption via roots or whether other factors, such as osmotic stress or biotic stress, are involved. To compare the osmotic stress induced by suc treatment, 4-week-old cultured mugwort plants were subjected to Hoagland nutrient solution with 10 mM, 30 mM, and 50 mM of suc or mannitol (man) for 3 days. Shoot fresh weight in suc and man treatments was not significantly different from the control. Both man and suc treatments increased the content of bioactive compounds in mugwort, but they displayed different enhancement patterns compared to the suc treatments. Mugwort extract treated with suc 50 mM effectively protected HepG2 liver cells damaged by ethanol and t-BHP. To compare the biotic stress induced by suc treatment, 3-week-old mugwort plants were subjected to microorganism and/or suc 30 mM with Hoagland nutrient solution. Microorganisms and/or suc 30 mM treatments showed no difference about the shoot fresh weight. However, sugar content in mugwort treated with suc 30 mM and microorganism with suc 30 mM treatment was significantly higher than that of the control. Suc 30 mM and microorganism with suc 30 mM were effective in enhancing bioactive compounds than microorganism treatment. These results suggest that mugwort plants can absorb exogenous suc via roots and the enhancement of bioactive compounds by suc treatment may result not from osmotic stress or biotic stress because of microorganism, but by suc-specific signaling.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.214-219
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• 1988

Factors affecting protoplast formation and reversion were investigated in Pleurotus sapidus kalchbr. For release of protoplast, enzyme mixture of Novozyme 234, ${\beta}-D-glucanase$ and ${\beta}-glucuronidase$ was most effective, when mycelium of 0.6 M sucrose solution as osmotic stabilizer without addition of buffer solution. The yield of protoplast was highest with mycelium cultured for 4 days on mushroom complete agar medium at ${30}^{\circ}C$. Protoplasts of Pleurotus sapidus were reverted to normal hyphal growth with maximum reversion frequency of 2% on Mushroom complete agar medium stabilized with 0.6 M sucrose solution and covered by 0.75% agar layer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.371-375
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• 1988

Tubular ultrafiltration membranes were used to investigated mass transfer characteristics of waste cheese whey. The effects of bulk concentration and flow velocity on permeat flux, mass transfer coefficient and apparent rejection coefficient were measured. Mass transfer coefficient was increased linearly with increasing flow velocity, and following relationship between mass transfer coefficient(k) and linear velocity(u) was obtained. $k=0.87{\times}10^{-5}u^{1-1}$ It is interjecting to note that plots for all linear velocity tend to converge to the same point for zero permeating flux, and the maximum bulk concentration that can be achieved with cheese whey extracts was 38(w/v %). In general, membrane rejection coefficient increased with increasing flow velocity and the rejection coefficients of cheese whey solution and that of lactose in cheese whey solution were obtained $0.40{\sim}0.65$, $0.15{\sim}0.30$, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.271-278
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• 2016

Recently, reverse osmosis (RO) is the most common process for seawater desalination. A common problem in both RO and thermal processes is the high energy requirements for seawater desalination. The one energy saving method when utilizing the osmotic power is utilizing pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process. The PRO process can be used to operate hydro turbines for electrical power production or can be used directly to supplement the energy required for RO desalination system. This study was carried out to evaluate the performance of both single-stage PRO process and two-stage PRO process using RO concentrate for a draw solution and RO permeate for a feed solution. The major results, were found that increase of the draw and feed solution flowrate lead to increase of the production of power density and water permeate. Also, comparison between CDCF and CDDF configuration showed that the CDDF was better than CDCF for stable operation of PRO process. In addition, power density of two-stage PRO was lower than the one of single-stage. However, net power of two-stage PRO was higher than the one of single-stage PRO.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.808-817
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• 2016

In this study, we investigated the effects of pre-soaking in salt and sugar solution prior to air drying at $50^{\circ}C$ on the characteristics of dried apples. Pre-soaking solutions included single solutions of salt 2% and sugar 2%; and combined solutions of salt 2%+sugar 2% and salt 2%+sugar 5%, respectively. The effects of pre-soaking condition and drying were evaluated in terms of moisture content (MC), water activity, color, antioxidant activity determined by DPPH radical scavenging activity, shear force, microbial contents, and sensory evaluation of apple slices. The control sample without pre-soaking showed the most rapid drying rate; in addition, the single solutions showed higher MC and water activity after drying time of 120 min, as compared to combined solutions. In all samples, MC and water activity showed high correlation coefficients of 0.91 to 0.97; whereas, shear force was negatively correlated with MC and water activity. The single solution of salt 2% showed decrease in change of color, including L, a, and b values, and the number of aerobic bacteria during drying. In addition, highest antioxidant activity and values of sensory preferences were observed in the dried apple pre-soaked in single solution of salt 2%.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.468-476
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• 2002

Oxy-PAN fiber prepared from the preoxidation and saponification of raw PAN fiber is known to elongate and contract when immersed in basic and acidic solutions, respectively. In this study, about 30% elongation in NaOH solution and 30∼50% contraction in HCl solution have been observed. In mechanical test, the mechanical properties of oxy-PAN fiber in the contracted state was stronger than that in the elongated state. These behaviors and mechanical properties are compared to those of living muscle and linear actuator. The change of length in NaOH and HCl solutions is due to switching between a hydrophilic and a hydrophobic structure. Other reasons are exchange of ion and water in/out of oxy-PAN fiber, and osmotic pressure difference associated with relevant ions. Much studies are needed to clarify the effective factors on but the oxy-PAN fiber's elongation/contraction behavior and mechanical properties, but the oxy-PAN fiber perpared in our laboratory has a sufficient potential for application as artificial muscle and linear actuator.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.272-278
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• 2023

In this study, we analyzed the effects of current density and electroosmotic phenomena on the desalination performance of electrodialysis (ED). We conducted ED experiments under constant voltage conditions, changing the concentration of the concentrate solution from 10 to 200 g/L. During the ED operation, we measured the current density and charge supplied to the stack, the concentration of the diluted and concentrated solutions, and the amount of water transported by electroosmosis to analyze desalination performance. As the concentration of the concentrated solution increased, the selectivity of the ion exchange membrane decreased, resulting in a decrease in current efficiency. Moreover, the current efficiency was found to be influenced by the current density supplied. When the current density exceeded 15 mA/cm², back diffusion of ions was suppressed, leading to an increase in current efficiency. We also investigated the specific water transport by electroosmosis during the ED operation. We found that the amount of water transported increased proportionally to the concentration ratio of the concentrated and diluted solutions. When the concentration ratio exceeded 100, the specific water transport rapidly increased due to osmotic pressure, making it challenging to obtain a concentrated solution greater than 200 g/L.