• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.87-95
• /
• 2008

One way to shield an atypical structure to secure the occupant safety of an impact vehicle is to stack energy absorbing material modules around the structure. To be applicable to a cushion module, material must have enough energy absorbing capabilities while satisfying the safety requirements of the vehicle occupant. Static compression test of the potential materials gives a good indication which material is good for a slacking module. This paper presents the mechanical properties that a cushion material must have to satisfy the safety requirements. Static tests are performed for Quard-Guard system module, sand bag, recycled tires, Geo-Container, Geo-Cell and Expanded Polystyren (EPS) Blocks. Static test results are discussed and EPS block of $30kg/m^{3}$ density showed good potential for a cushion module. To check the dynamic effect of EPS block, drop tests have been made up to 35.6km/h impact speed. Drop test results are compared with static test results and no appreciable difference was found. To improve the EPS module property, making holes to the block is suggested and drop test are performed for the modified blocks. From the drop test results, design values are suggested.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.163-172
• /
• 2018

PRF001 is a fragmented DNA polymer extracted from the testes of salmon. The purpose of this study was to assess the anti-inflammatory effect of PRF001 in vitro as well as the protective effect of PRF001 intake against arthritis in a rat model. In vitro, cell survival and inflammatory markers after $H_2O_2$ treatment to induce cell damage were investigated in CHON-001 cells treated with different concentrations of PRF001. In vivo, osteoarthritis was induced by intra-articular injection of monosodium iodoacetate (MIA) into the knee joints of rats. After consumption of PRF001 (10, 50, or 100 mg/kg) for 4 weeks, inflammatory mediators and cytokines in articular cartilage were investigated. In vitro, the levels of inflammatory markers, $IL-1{\beta}$, $TNF-{\alpha}$, COX-2, iNOS, and PGE2, were significantly suppressed by PRF001 treatment. In vivo, the inflammatory mediators and cytokines, $IL-1{\beta}$, p-Erk1/2, $NF-{\kappa}B$, $TNF-{\alpha}$, COX-2, and PGE2, as well as MMP3 and MMP7, which have catabolic activity in chondrocytes, were decreased in the MIA-induced osteoarthritic rats following intake of PRF001. Histological analysis revealed that PRF001 had a protective effect on the articular cartilage. Altogether, these results demonstrated that the anti-inflammatory property of PRF001 contributes to its protective effects in osteoarthritis through deregulating $IL-1{\beta}$, $TNF-{\alpha}$, and subsequent signals, such as p-Erk1/2, $NF-{\kappa}B$, COX-2, PGE2, and MMPs.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
• /
• v.33 no.3 s.131
• /
• pp.45-52
• /
• 2005

This research was performed to evaluate adsorption behavior of woody charcoals obtained from wood powder, fiber and bark of spruce (Abies sibirica Ledeb). The wood materials were carbonized at various temperatures for 1 hour using experimental rotary kiln without any inert gas. The adsorption capacity of iodine and toluene, specific surface area and removal efficiency of acetic acid and ammonia gas of those charcoals were measured. The higher was the temperature for carbonization, the lower yields of charcoals were. Ash content of bark charcoal was higher than that of wood powder charcoal or fiber charcoal. Elemental analysis of woody charcoal revealed that the content of carbon was gradually lincreased as carbonization temperature was higher. When carbonization temperature was higher, adsorption capacity of woody charcoals for iodine was much improved. Wood powder charcoal and fiber charcoal were more effective for iodine adsorption rather than bark charcoal. Capacity of toluene adsorption was the highest in the charcoal of $600^{\circ}C$. Charcoals produced at high temperature efficiently removed acetic acid gas, while charcoals carbonized at low temperature such as $400^{\circ}C$ were proper to remove ammonia gas. This difference may be explained that the acidity of charcoals depends on the carbonization temperature: charcoals of low temperature indicate acidic property, while those of high temperature turned to alkaline.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.118-124
• /
• 2005

In this study, a novel deposition method of Pt catalysts onto Nafion membranes modified with polypyrrole (PPy) has been proposed for PEMFC application. The PPy/Nafion composite membranes were fabricated by chemical polymerization of pyrrole using $FeCl_3$ and $Na_2S_2O_8$ as initiator. The proton conductivity and water uptake of the chemically prepared PPy/Nafion composites were investigated. The ionic conductivity and water uptake of PPy/Nafion composite membrane prepared with $Na_2S_2O_8$ were decreased with polymerization time of pyrrole. In the case of $FeCl_3$, the ionic conductivity was almost retained and the water uptake was decreased with polymerization time of pyrrole. When the Pt particle was deposited on PPy/Nafion composites membrane by chemical reduction of $H_2PtCl_6$, the Pt loading on Nafion membrane was enhanced by polypyrrole due to electronic conduction property. The performance evaluation with membrane electrode assembly composed of Pt/PPy/Nafion composite and diffusion electrode was carried out using a single cell. As a result of fuel cell test, current density of $569mA/cm^2$ at 0.3 V has been obtained for MEA contained with Pt/PPy/Nafion composite. This study shows that direct deposition of Pt catalysts on Nafion impregnated polypyrrole is a promising method to prepare thin catalyst layer for the PEMFC.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.90-103
• /
• 2018

Although fluoride is an essential trace element, ingestion of excessive amount of fluoride could have detrimental effect on human health. Generally, the bioavailability of fluoride in soils was low, but it could be harmful to the environment depending on the soil properties. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the concentration distribution, and fate and transport characteristics of fluoride to establish a resonable management strategy for fluoride pollution. This study was conducted to evaluate nationwide fluoride distribution in soils in Korea, as well as its fate and transport characteristics. The average background concentration was 204.5 (15.3~504.8) mg/kg, which is lower than the values of foreign soils. For the three regions of different land use, the average concentration was 229.6 mg/kg in region 1, 195.7 mg/kg in region 2, and 273.4 mg/kg in region 3. The concentration of fluoride was the highest in soils from Youngnam block within tectonic structure derived from metamorphic rocks. The results of sequential extraction to access F bioavailability showed fluoride in soils mainly existed as a residual form, which suggests the bioavailability of fluoride was relatively low. Soil properties such as soil pH, CEC, and clay content were found to affect F bioavailability of soil.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.51 no.3
• /
• pp.241-248
• /
• 2015

Although studies on probiotics have been performed mostly with viable microbes, the beneficial functions of dead or heat-killed form of probiotic strains have also been examined. In this study, live and heat-killed forms of Lactobacillus acidophilus CBT LA1 were investigated in vitro and in vivo to evaluate the properties necessary for gut barrier protection. Cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH), autoaggregation (AA), cell adhesion, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-binding properties were evaluated. In addition, the suppressive effect on LPS-induced interleukin (IL)-8 expression was investigated in HT-29 cells. To identify optimal conditions for CBT LA1 to adhere to HT-29 cells, CBT LA1 cells were heat-treated at 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, or $121^{\circ}C$ for 10 min; cells treated at $80^{\circ}C$ for 10 min showed the highest adhesion. Heat-killed bacteria at $80^{\circ}C$ showed higher levels of LPS-binding, CSH, AA, adhesion to HT-29, and suppression of IL-8 expression than did live CBT LA1. In vivo imaging was performed to evaluate the ability of live or heat-killed CBT LA1 to remove LPS from the intestine in a rat model of infection. At 16 h after infection, fluorescence from FITC-conjugated LPS had mostly disappeared from the intestine of the rats administered with live or heat-killed CBT LA1; the effect was greater with heat-killed CBT LA1 at $80^{\circ}C$. These results suggest that heat-killed CBT LA1 as well as its live form can be applied as a pharmabiotic for protection of the gut barrier.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.51 no.3
• /
• pp.300-307
• /
• 2015

For selecting Bacillus strains producing high-quality Cheonggukjang, 8 strains were isolated from the different Cheonggukjang samples. Seven of them exhibited the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity value of over 99.9% to Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis and one of them showed the similarity to B. licheniformis. All the strains showed positive activities for amylase, cellulase, protease and lipase, and 6 strains are positive for fibrinolytic activity. To confirm the safety of the strains isolated from the samples of Cheonggukjang which are manufactured by traditional method, strains were analyzed for the presence of seven toxin genes of Bacillus cereus and results were found negative. And 7 strains did not produce at all or merely produce both histamine and tyramine, the representative biogenic amines. Biogenic amine degradation analysis by HPLC revealed that, most of them exhibited tyramine degradation activity. For Cheonggukjang fermented by artificial inoculation of selected strains, fermentation property, sensory test, volatile basic nitrogen production and metabolic profiles by $^1H-NMR$ were tested. Seven strains were confirmed to make high-quality Cheonggukjang.

• Natural Product Sciences
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.144-150
• /
• 2009

Gradient centrifugal partition chromatography (GCPC) method was developed and applied to isolate 3,5-dimethoxyphenanthrene-2,7-diol (DMP) and batatasin-I (BA-I) from the dichloromethane soluble extract of Dioscorea opposita. In this method, the lower phase of n-hexane-methanol-water system (HMW, 10 : 9 : 1, v/v) was used as a mobile phase A (MpA) and water was used as a mobile phase B (MpB). This gradient CPC method is comparable to that of reversed-phase HPLC method in that the stationary upper-phase of HMW (10 : 9 : 1 v/v) works as if it were reversed-phase silica gel due to its hydrophobic property, while the lower phase (MpA) and water (MpB) functioned as hydrophilic mobile phases. The initial condition of the mobile phase was 20% MpA/80% MpB and maintained for 150 min to obtain DMP (1.2 mg), and then MpA was increased up to 50% to elute BA-I (1.7 mg). The purities of DMP and BA-I were 94.1% and 98.3% with the recovery yields of 83% and 86%, respectively. Similar results were obtained by linear-gradient CPC. The CPC peak fractions were identified by comparing their retention time to those of authentic samples of DMP and BA-I and their spectroscopic data ($^1$H NMR and $^{13}$C NMR) to those of literature values.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.327-338
• /
• 2012

Liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin are the major flavonoids present in licorice. These flavonoid compounds were prepared by submerged culture of Grifola frondosa (G. frondosa) HB0071 mycelia producing ${\beta}$-glucosidase in the aqueous extract of licorice. The contents of liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin were increased during the fermentation. This fungus produced a high ${\beta}$-glucosidase (activity of 91.5 mU/mL), thereby achieving high amounts of liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin ($568.5{\mu}g/mL$ and $89.6{\mu}g/mL$), respectively at 96 h. A reversed- phase high-performance liquid chromatography method was established for simultaneous determination of liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin in fermented licorice extract (FLEx). The anti-inflammatory activities were investigated by licorice extract (LEx) before and after fermentation with G. frondosa HB0071. The treatment of UVB-irradiated HaCaT keratinocytes with FLEx resulted in a dose-dependent decrease in the expression level of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mRNA. Furthermore, FLEx dose-dependently decreased mRNA of the pro-inflammatory cytokines of IL-$1{\beta}$ and IL-6 in UVB-irradiated HaCaT cells. These results suggest that FLEx may mitigate the effects of skin inflammation by reducing UVB-induced adverse skin reactions.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.39 no.8
• /
• pp.758-763
• /
• 2002

The various ultrasonic energies (28 kHz, 40 kHz, 70 kHz) were used to improve the magnetic properties of Ba-ferrite as the perpendicular magnetic recording materials. In the sheet formation process, the different orientation hars were used to orientate perpendicularly the dispersed Ba-ferrite to sheet. Throughout these experiments, we have obtained relatively higher value of S. Q. (Squreness Ratio : 0.783) and O. R. (Orientation Ratio : 2.87) magnetic properties at 2 h ultrasonic treatment of 40 kHz ultrasonic energy. With aid of SEM(Scanning Electron Microscopy) images, the obtained sheet with dispersed of Ba-ferrite could be used for perpendicular magnetic recording due to orientated to easy magnetization axis, c-axis. In addition, the value of S. Q. of sheet decreased with increasing applied magnetic field angle during measuring of S. Q. value with changing applied magnetic field angle by VSM (Vibrating Sample Magnetrometer). This result also induced the probability for prependicular magnetic recording.