• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.65-73
• /
• 2018

Pretreatment of low-dose lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces a hyporesponsive state to subsequent secondary challenge with high-dose LPS in innate immune cells, whereas super-low-dose LPS results in augmented expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. However, little is known about the difference between super-low-dose and low-dose LPS pretreatments on immune cell-mediated inflammatory and hepatic acute-phase responses to secondary LPS. In the present study, RAW 264.7 cells, EL4 cells, and Hepa-1c1c7 cells were pretreated with super-low-dose LPS (SL-LPS: 50 pg/mL) or low-dose LPS (L-LPS: 50 ng/mL) in fresh complete medium once a day for 2~3 days and then cultured in fresh complete medium for 24 hr or 48 hr in the presence or absence of LPS ($1{\sim}10{\mu}g/mL$) or concanavalin A (Con A). SL-LPS pretreatment strongly enhanced the LPS-induced production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-${\alpha}$, interleukin (IL)-6, TNF-${\alpha}$/IL-10, prostaglandin E2 ($PGE_2$), and nitric oxide (NO) by RAW 264.7 cells compared to the control, whereas L-LPS increased IL-6 and NO production only. SL-LPS strongly augmented the Con A-induced ratios of interferon (IFN)-${\gamma}$/IL-10 in EL4 cells but decreased the LPS-induced ratios of IFN-${\gamma}$/IL-10 compared to the control, while L-LPS decreased the Con A- and LPS-induced ratios of IFN-${\gamma}$/IL-10. SL-LPS enhanced the LPS-induced production of IL-6 by Hepa1c1c-7 cells compared to the control, while L-LPS increased IL-6 but decreased IL-$1{\beta}$ and C reactive protein (CRP) levels. SL-LPS pretreatment strongly enhanced the LPS-induced production of TNF-${\alpha}$, IL-6, IL-10, $PGE_2$, and NO in RAW 264.7 cells, and the IL-6, IL-$1{\beta}$, and CRP levels in Hepa1c1c-7 cells, as well as the ratios of IFN-${\gamma}$/IL-10 in LPS- and Con A-stimulated EL4 cells compared to L-LPS. These findings suggest that pre-conditioning of SL-LPS may contribute to the mortality to secondary infection in sepsis rather than pre-conditioning of L-LPS.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.79-82
• /
• 1974

Present experiments were designed to estimate the effects of pretreatments by various kinds of alkalis to the agricultural wastes such as cereal straws as the substrate on the production of cellulosic single-cell protein. Among the various kinds of alkalis NaOH was proved to be the most effective on improving the digestibility of cellulose by the bacteria isolated. NH$_4$OH which is inferior to NaOH in the effectiveness of treatment might have more economic advantage in the price, and the ammonium salt resulted from the neutralization can be used as the nitrogen source by bacteria. The treatment with higher concentration than 1 normality of NH$_4$OH didn't increase the productivility of cell mass. About five per cent of (NH$_4$)$_2$SO$_4$ in medium resulted from the neutralization didn't have any influence in the cell mass productivility. Futhermore, the cell mass productibility was higher in the case of neutralization than alkali free washing. The digestibility of straws was increased from 7.9％ to 46.0％ by NH$_4$OH treatment, and 6.3∼6.45g of dry cell were obtained from 40g of NH$_4$OH treated straws. In the case of NaOH treatment, 8.6g of cell mass was obtained from 40g of substrate.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
• /
• v.15B no.2
• /
• pp.137-146
• /
• 2008

Fault localization plays a significant role in enormous distributed system because it can identify root cause of observed faults automatically, supporting self-managing which remains an open topic in managing and controlling complex distributed systems to improve system reliability. Although many Artificial Intelligent techniques have been introduced in support of fault localization in recent research especially in increasing complex ubiquitous environment, the provided functions such as diagnosis and prediction are limited. In this paper, we propose fault localization for self-managing in performance evaluation in order to improve system reliability via learning and analyzing real-time streams of system performance events. We use probabilistic reasoning functions based on the basic Bayes' rule to provide effective mechanism for managing and evaluating system performance parameters automatically, and hence the system reliability is improved. Moreover, due to large number of considered factors in diverse and complex fault reasoning domains, we develop an efficient method which extracts relevant parameters having high relationships with observing problems and ranks them orderly. The selected node ordering lists will be used in network modeling, and hence improving learning efficiency. Using the approach enables us to diagnose the most probable causal factor with responsibility for the underlying performance problems and predict system situation to avoid potential abnormities via posting treatments or pretreatments respectively. The experimental application of system performance analysis by using the proposed approach and various estimations on efficiency and accuracy show that the availability of the proposed approach in performance evaluation domain is optimistic.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.211-215
• /
• 2003

When Saccharomyces cerevisiae MTY62, a high-RNA content yeast, was cultivated by fed-batch mode feeding molasses and com steep liquor, the cell density less than 45g-DCW/L and the RNA content less than 140mg/g-cell were obtained, indicating that unknown compounds inhibiting the cell growth and RNA accumulation are contained in the molasses. Therefore, in order to obtain higher levels of cell density and RNA content, $Ca^{++}$, $Cu^{++}$and $K^{+}$ ions in molasses were removed by pretreatments of molasses with various agents such as IonClear BigBead, $Na_2$$HPO_4$, $H_2$$SO_4$, citric acid, $K_2$$HPO_4$, and EDT A. Among them, IonClear BigBead, $Na_2$$HPO_4$, and EDTA gave the highest $Ca^{++}$ removal efficiency of about 60-90%. In the batch culture with pretreated molasses, the cell concentration of 18.6g-DCW/I and RNA concentration of 3127 mg/I, maximum specific growth rate of 0.459$h^{-1}$ , and specific consumption rate of reducing sugar of 1.28g-sugar/g-cell-h were obtained, which are about 10%, 17%,47%, and 36% higher levels, respectively, over the batch culture with untreated molasses.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.163-166
• /
• 2016

Objectives: Quercetin is a flavonoid and an important dietary constituent of fruits and vegetables. In recent years, several pharmacological activities of quercetin, such as its neuroprotective activity and, more specifically, its anti-convulsant effects in animal models of epilepsy, have been reported. This study evaluated the role of quercetin pretreatment on gene expression of ${\gamma}$-amino butyric acid type A ($GABA_A$) receptor beta subunits in kainic acid (KA)-induced seizures in mice. Methods: The animals were divided into four groups: one saline group, one group in which seizures were induced by using KA (10 mg/kg) without quercetin pretreatment and two groups pretreated with quercetin (50 and 100 mg/kg) prior to seizures being induced by using KA. Next, the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) levels of the $GABA_A$ receptor ${\beta}$ subunits in the hippocampus of each animal were assessed at 2 hours and 7 days after KA administration. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay was used to detect mRNA content in hippocampal tissues. Results: Pretreatments with quercetin at doses of 50 and 100 mg/kg prevented significant increases in the mRNA levels of the ${\beta}_1$ and the ${\beta}_3$ subunits of the $GABA_A$ receptor at 2 hours after KA injection. Pretreatment with quercetin (100 mg/kg) significantly inhibited ${\beta}_1$ and ${\beta}_3$ gene expression in the hippocampus at 7 days after KA injection. But, this inhibitory effect of quercetin at 50 mg/kg on the mRNA levels of the ${\beta}_3$ subunit of the $GABA_A$ receptor was not observed at 7 days after KA administration. Conclusion: These results suggest that quercetin (100 mg/kg) modulates the expression of the $GABA_A$ receptor ${\beta}_1$ and ${\beta}_3$ subunits in the KA model of epilepsy, most likely to prevent compensatory responses. This may be related to the narrow therapeutic dose range for the anticonvulsant activities of quercetin.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.421-425
• /
• 2005

The difference on compositions of enzyme extracts which were produced with two kinds of enzyme, celluclast and pectinex, and from sea mustards prepared with two kinds of pretreatments, heating and non-heating treatment, were investigated. The moisture compositions of enzyme extracts from the heating sea mustard were little higher than that of nonheating sea mustard, although the compositions of crude ash and pectin were no significant differences between two kinds of different pretreatment extracts. The supernatant extract ratio was slightly higher level in the heating pretreatment enzyme extracts than non-heating pretreatment extracts and the level of extracts prepared with only celluclast enzyme was higher than using only pectinex and the mixture of two enzymes. The general sensory evaluation value of jelly made from non-heating pretreatment extracts was higher than that from heating pretreatment extracts except on the taste and the texture.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.130-138
• /
• 1981

Discoloration of canned boiled oysters during storage is one of the serious problems which affect the quality of the products as well as the nutritive value. Usually the factors influencing the quality of canned boiled oysters are the process of pretreatments and the storage temperature of the products. In the present work, the changes of the total chlorophylls and carotenoids in the meat and the viscera of oysters were determined in order to make certain the procedure of the discoloration. In addition, the amino-N and the available lysine as factors of the nutritive value were also checked. In case of treatment with additives, direct addition of syrups containing additives just before seaming or soaking boiled oysters into the solution of additives seemed to have mild effects on retardation of discoloration. The migration of carotenoids from the viscera into the meat was faster than that of chlorophyll resulting in yellowing of the Products preceded greening caused by the chlorophylls. Treatment with $0.5\%\; Na_{2}EDTA\;of\;2.5\%$ brine retarded discoloration and available lysine loss of the Products while sodium-polyphosphate accelerated them. It was probably due to that sodium-polyphosphate could affect the softening or breakdown of the muscle of oysters. But most of all, storage temperature of canned boiled oysters seemed to be the major factor influencing the discoloration and nutritive loss of the products.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.74-85
• /
• 2013

Since the underground transportation system is a closed environment, indoor air quality problems may seriously affect many passengers' health. The purpose of this study was to understand $PM_{10}$ characteristics in the underground air environment and further to quantitatively estimate $PM_{10}$ source contributions in a Seoul Metropolitan subway station. The $PM_{10}$ was intensively collected on various filters with $PM_{10}$ aerosol samplers to obtain sufficient samples for its chemical analysis. Sampling was carried out in the M station on the Line-4 from April 21 to 28, July 13 to 21, and October 11 to 19 in the year of 2010 and January 11 to 17 in the year of 2011. The aerosol filter samples were then analyzed for metals, water soluble ions, and carbon components. The 29 chemical species (OC1, OC2, OC3, OC4, CC, PC, EC, Ag, Al, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Si, Ti, V, Zn, $Cl^-$, $NO_3{^-}$, $SO_4{^{2-}}$, $Na^+$, $NH_4{^+}$, $K^+$, $Mg^{2+}$, $Ca^{2+}$) were analyzed by using ICP-AES, IC, and TOR after proper pretreatments of each sample filter. Based on the chemical information, positive matrix factorization (PMF) model was applied to identify the $PM_{10}$ sources and then six sources such as biomass burning, outdoor, vehicle, soil and road dust, secondary aerosol, ferrous, and brakewear related source were classified. The contributions rate of their sources in tunnel are 4.0%, 5.8%, 1.6%, 17.9%, 13.8% and 56.9% in order.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.29 no.9
• /
• pp.1044-1050
• /
• 2007

In this study, Bio-hydrogen is produced from organic waste mixtures containing food waste and waste activated sludge (WAS). The effects of different operational factor on hydrogen production, including various solubilization methods for pretreatments of WAS, pH and different ratios of food waste and WAS, were investigated. The highest hydrogen production values are obtained as 4.3 mL $H_2/g$ $VS_{consumed}$ in the case of applying the mixed pre-treatments of alkali and ultrasonic. The pH value in bio-reactor increased from 4 to 8 after the ultrasonic treatment with alkali and the hydrogen yield touched its highest value in the pH range of 5.0 to 5.5. Similarly, the hydrogen production reached the level of 13.8 mL $H_2/g$ $VS_{consumed}$ using the same pre-treatment method from the mixture of food waste and WAS. The ratio of 2 : 1 produced a maximum amount of hydrogen of 5.0 L $H_2/L/d$. The amount of volatile fatty acids(VFAs) including acetate, propionate and butyrate, were also varied considerably. Propionate decreased consistently with rising of hydrogen while butyrate comparing to acetate relatively increased in the effluent.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.301-309
• /
• 2015

Importance of pretreatment for seawater desalination is growing rapidly. Proper selection of pretreatment is critical for the successful, long-term operation in the seawater desalination plant such as seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO). The purposes of seawater pretreatment are to remove particulate, colloidal materials, organic, inorganic materials, microorganisms and their by-products present in the seawater, and thus to improve the performance of seawater desalination systems. However, pretreatment is most challenging for designing and operating seawater desalination plants because of fluctuations of water qualities, site specifications and wide ranges of target materials present in the seawater to be treated. In addition, it is also becoming evident increasingly that microscopic algae are a major cause of operational problems, for example, membrane fouling which is long-standing problem in SWRO process. Pretreatment strategies prior to the operation of seawater desalination technologies should be even more complicated by algae blooms and release of their harmful by-products in marine environment. This paper reviews the roles of various pretreatment methods in seawater desalination process. Benefits and drawbacks are described, which should be taken into account in future studies on selecting pretreatment for seawater desalination process.