O-free polyacrylonitrile doping to improve the J_c(B) and H_c2 of MgB₂ wires

Hwang, S.M.,Sung, K.,Choi, J.H.,Kim, W.,Joo, J.,Lim, J.H.,Kim, C.J.,Park, Y.S.,Kim, D.H. North-Holland 2010 Physica. C, Superconductivity Vol.470 No.20

We selected polyacrylonitrile (PAN, -[C<SUB>3</SUB>H<SUB>3</SUB>N]-) as an O-free organic dopant and fabricated C-doped MgB<SUB>2</SUB> wires by in situ and powder-in-tube techniques. 0-5 wt.% PAN powders were uniformly mixed with B powder using a liquid mixing method. The precursor powders were mixed with Mg powder, filled into Fe tubes, and then drawn into wires. Sintering was performed at 900<SUP>o</SUP>C for 1h in a flowing Ar gas. The PAN doping decreased the critical temperature (T<SUB>c</SUB>) and a-axis lattice parameter, but significantly improved the critical current density (J<SUB>c</SUB>) in high fields, upper critical field (H<SUB>c2</SUB>), and irreversibility field (H<SUB>irr</SUB>) performances. These results are attributed to the replacement of B sites with C by the PAN doping. Furthermore, as expected, the MgO amount did not increase as the doping content increased. The J<SUB>c</SUB> of the PAN-doped MgB<SUB>2</SUB> wires was more than one order of magnitude higher than that of the undoped MgB<SUB>2</SUB> wire at 5K and 6.6T (1.46-3.82kA/cm<SUP>2</SUP> vs. 0.11kA/cm<SUP>2</SUP>).

The C₃H-type zinc finger protein GDS1/C3H42 is a nuclear-speckle-localized protein that is essential for normal growth and development in Arabidopsis

Kim, D.W.,Jeon, S.J.,Hwang, S.M.,Hong, J.C.,Bahk, J.D. Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd 2016 Plant science Vol.250 No.-

<P>Eukaryotic C3H-type zinc finger proteins (Znfs) comprise a large family of regulatory proteins involved in many aspects of plant stress response, growth and development. However, compared to mammalian, only a few plant Znfs have been functionally characterized. Here, T-DNA inserted gdsl (growth, development and splicing 1) mutant, displayed abnormal growth throughout the lifecycle owing to the reduction of cell size and number. Inverse PCR analysis revealed that the abnormal growth was caused by the disruption of At3g47120, which encodes a C3H42 protein belonging to the C-X-7-C-X-5-C-X-3-H class of the Znf family. GDS1 was ubiquitously transcribed, but shows high levels of expression in young seedling and unexpanded new leaves. In gdsl, the transcripts of many growth- and development-related genes were down-regulated, and the auxin response was dramatically reduced. A fluorescence-based assay revealed that the GDS1 protein was localized to the nucleus, prominently in the speckle compartments. Its arginine/serine dipeptide-rich-like (RS-like) domain was essential for nuclear localization. In addition, the SRI, SRm102 and U1-70K components of the U1 spliceosome interacted with GDS1 in the nuclear speckle compartments. Taken together, these suggest that GDS1, a nuclear-speckle-associated Znf, might play a significant role in splicing during plant growth and development. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.</P>

Effective suppression of C5a-induced proinflammatory response using anti-human C5a repebody

Hwang, D.E.,Choi, J.M.,Yang, C.S.,Lee, J.j.,Heu, W.,Jo, E.K.,Kim, H.S. Academic Press 2016 Biochemical and biophysical research communication Vol.477 No.4

The strongest anaphylatoxin, C5a, plays a critical role in the proinflammatory responses, causing the pathogenesis of a number of inflammatory diseases including sepsis, asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis. Inhibitors of C5a thus have great potential as therapeutics for various inflammatory disorders. Herein, we present the development of a high-affinity repebody against human C5a (hC5a), which effectively suppresses the proinflammatory response. A repebody scaffold composed of leucine-rich repeat (LRR) modules was previously developed as an alternative protein scaffold. A repebody specifically binding to hC5a was selected through a phage display, and its affinity was increased up to 5 nM using modular engineering. The repebody was shown to effectively inhibit the production of C5a-induced proinflammatory cytokines by human monocytes. To obtain insight into a mode of action by the repebody, we determined its crystal structure in complex with hC5a. A structural analysis revealed that the repebody binds to the D1 and D3 regions of hC5a, overlapping several epitope residues with the hC5a receptor (hC5aR). It is thus likely that the repebody suppresses the hC5a-mediated immune response in monocytes by blocking the binding of hC5a to its receptor. The anti-hC5a repebody can be developed as a potential therapeutic for C5a-involved inflammatory diseases.

Low Temperature Oligomerization of Ethylene over Ni/Al-KIT-6 Catalysts

Hwang, A.,Kim, S.,Kwak, G.,Kim, S. K.,Park, H. G.,Kang, S. C.,Jun, K. W.,Kim, Y. T. Springer Science + Business Media 2017 Catalysis letters Vol.147 No.6

<P>In this paper, we have studied the oligomerization of ethylene with a liquid heptane solvent over bifunctional Ni catalysts in a continuous flow reactor. We have prepared an Al-containing KIT-6 silica that was used as a support after calcination in the temperature range of 300-900 A degrees C. The Ni/Al-KIT-6 catalysts had uniform mesopores with diameters in the range of 5.4-6.3 nm, excepting Ni/Al-KIT-6 (900). The calcination temperature of Al-KIT-6 support changed the surface acidity as well as the interaction of Ni2+ and acid sites for the Ni catalysts, as determined by temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia, temperature-programmed reduction, infrared spectroscopy after the adsorption of pyridine, solid-state Al-27 magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and X-ray adsorption spectroscopy. Among the tested catalysts, the Ni/Al-KIT-6 (300) showed the highest ethylene conversion because of the increased intimate contact between Ni2+ and acid sites. The strong interaction of Ni2+ species and the support is not effective in increasing active sites for ethylene conversion. The Ni/Al-KIT-6 catalysts produced internal linear C4 and C6 olefins with high selectivity. The Ni/Al-KIT-6 (300) had 2.2-6.1 times lower selectivities toward 2-ethyl-1-butene than other catalysts at similar ethylene conversions. The reaction product mixture showed that the Ni/Al-KIT-6 catalysts shifted the product distribution towards acid-catalyzed oligomerization/cracking/realkylation products (i.e. C3, C7, C7, and C8+ olefins) as the concentration of Bronsted acid sites increased. Among the tested catalysts, the Ni/Al-KIT-6 (300) showed the highest yield of C4 and C6 olefins (78.3%).</P>

Improvement of high-field J_c of MgB₂ wires by polymethyl-methacrylate doping

Park, G.C.,Hwang, S.M.,Lee, C.M.,Choi, J.H.,Joo, J.,Lim, J.H.,Kang, W.N.,Kim, C.J. North-Holland 2010 Physica. C, Superconductivity Vol.470 No.suppl1

We applied polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) as a new doping material for MgB<SUB>2</SUB> and fabricated C-doped MgB<SUB>2</SUB> wires by in situ powder-in-tube (PIT) process. With increasing PMMA doping level, the transition temperature (T<SUB>c</SUB>) decreased and the MgO content increased, whereas the magnetic field dependence of the critical current density (J<SUB>c</SUB>) weakened. The MgB<SUB>2</SUB> wires doped with 3-10wt.% PMMA showed significantly higher J<SUB>c</SUB> by more than one order of magnitude than that of the undoped wire at 5K and 6.6T. These results confirmed the potential of PMMA as a promising material for the effective substitution of B by C in MgB<SUB>2</SUB>.

Fabrication of ex situ processed MgB₂ wires using nano carbon doped powder

Lee, C.M.,Park, J.H.,Hwang, S.M.,Lim, J.H.,Joo, J.,Kang, W.N.,Kim, C.J. North-Holland 2009 Physica. C, Superconductivity Vol.469 No.15

We fabricated ex situ MgB<SUB>2</SUB> wires using C-doped MgB<SUB>2</SUB> powder as a precursor in order to improve the core density of the wires and their C doping content. The C-doped powder was prepared with Mg, B, and nano carbon (NC) powders by the in situ technique and then MgB<SUB>2-x</SUB>C<SUB>x</SUB> (x=0, 0.01, and 0.03) wires were fabricated by the ex situ technique using the powder-in-tube method. The phase formation, lattice change, and microstructure were characterized and correlated with the T<SUB>c</SUB> and J<SUB>c</SUB> variations. We observed that the ex situ wire had a higher core density than the in situ wire, however its morphology consisted of agglomerated particles, indicating that sintering and grain growth did not occur completely, even though the sintering was conducted at high temperature (1000<SUP>o</SUP>C). As the C content increased, T<SUB>c</SUB> decreased, while the decrease of J<SUB>c</SUB> with increasing magnetic field became smaller. The J<SUB>c</SUB> of MgB<SUB>1.97</SUB>C<SUB>0.03</SUB> wire made by the ex situ technique was 3.34kA/cm<SUP>2</SUP> at 6.6T and 5K which is comparable to that of the in situ wire (4.81kA/cm<SUP>2</SUP> at 6.6T and 5K).

LIGA-like 공정을 이용한 마이크로 부품 복제용 Ni과 Ni-W 금형 제조 및 특성

황완식,박준식,강영철,조진우,박순섭,이인규,강성군,Hwang, W.S.,Park, J.S.,Kang, Y.C.,Cho, J.W.,Park, S.S.,Lee, I.G.,Kang, S.G. 한국재료학회 2003 한국재료학회지 Vol.13 No.1

Electroplated Ni and Ni-W micro-molds using LIGA-like process for replication of micro-components such as microfluidic parts and micro optical parts have been investigated. In general, it is hard to produce micro-parts using conventional mechanical processes. Micro-mold formed by LIGA-like process could fabricate micro-parts with high aspect ratio. In this paper, fabrication and properties of electroplated Ni molds with varying applied current types as well as those of Ni-W molds were investigated. Ni molds fabricated under pulse-reverse current showed the highest hardness value of about 160 Hv. Ni-W molds showed the hardness of about 500 Hv which was much harder than that of Ni electroplated molds. The above results suggested that high quality micro-molds could be fabricated by using Ni electroplating of pulse-reverse type for core molds and sequential Ni-W alloys coating.

Ionic and thermo-switchable polymer-masked mesoporous silica drug-nanocarrier: High drug loading capacity at 10^oC and fast drug release completion at 40^oC

Eltohamy, M.,Seo, J.W.,Hwang, J.Y.,Jang, W.C.,Kim, H.W.,Shin, U.S. Elsevier 2016 Colloids and surfaces. B, Biointerfaces Vol.144 No.-

<P>The preparation of the ideal smart drug-delivery systems were successfully achieved by the in situ co-polymerization of a vinyl group-functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticle (f-MSN) with 1-butyl-3-vinyl imidazolium bromide (BVIm) and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) monomers. The thickness of the capping copolymer layer, poly(NIPAAm-co-BVIm) (p-NIBIm), was controlled at between 2.5 nm and 5 nm, depending on the monomers/f-MSN ratio in the reaction solution. The finally obtained smart drug-delivery systems are named as p-MSN2.5 and p-MSN5.0 (MSNs integrated by 2.5 nm and 5 nm p-NIBIm layer in thickness). The key roles of the mesoporous-silica-nanoparticle (MSN) core and the p-NIBIm shell are drug-carrying (or containing) and pore-capping, respectively, and the latter has an on/off function that operates in accordance with temperature changes. According to the swelling- or shrinking-responses of the smart capping copolymer to temperature changes between 10 degrees C and 40 degrees C, the loading and releasing patterns of the model drug cytochrome c were studied in vitro. The developed system showed interesting performances such as a cytochrome-c-loading profile (loading capacity for 3 h = 26.3% and 19.8% for p-MSN2.5 and p-MSN5.0, respectively) at 10 degrees C and a cytochrome-c-releasing profile (releasing efficiency = > 95% within 3 days and 4days for p-MSN2.5 and p-MSN5.0, respectively) at 40 degrees C. The cytotoxicity of the drug delivery systems, p-MSN2.5 and p-MSN5.0 (in the concentration range of <0.125 mg/mL without drug), for human embryonic kidney (HEK 293) cells were minimal in vitro compared with that of a blank MSN. These results may be reasonably applied in the field of specified drug delivery. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.</P>

Ethanol extract of Prunus mume fruit attenuates hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis involving Nrf2/HO-1 activation in C2C12 myoblasts

Kang, J.S.,Kim, D.J.,Kim, G.Y.,Cha, H.J.,Kim, S.,Kim, H.S.,Park, C.,Hwang, H.J.,Kim, B.W.,Kim, C.M.,Choi, Y.H. Sociedade Brasileira de Farmacognosia 2016 Revista brasileira de farmacognosia Vol.26 No.2

<P>The fruit of the Prunus mume (Siebold) Siebold & Zucc., Rosaceae (Korean name: Maesil) has long been used as a health food or valuable medicinal material in traditional herb medicine in Southeast Asian countries. In this study, we determined the potential therapeutic efficacy of the ethanol extract of P. mume fruits (EEPM) against H2O2-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in the murine skeletal muscle myoblast cell line C2C12, and sought to understand the associated molecular mechanisms. The results indicated that exposure of C2C12 cells to H2O2 caused a reduction in cell viability by increasing the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species and by disrupting mitochondrial membrane permeability, leading to DNA damage and apoptosis. However, pretreatment of the cells with EEPM before H2O2 exposure effectively attenuated these changes, suggesting that EEPM prevented H2O2-induced mitochondria-dependent apoptosis. Furthermore, the increased ex-pression and phosphorylation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and up-regulation of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), a phase II antioxidant enzyme, were detected in EEPM-treated C2C12 cells. We also found that zinc protoporphyrin IX, an HO-1 inhibitor, attenuated the protective effects of EEPM against H2O2-induced reactive oxygen species accumulation and cytotoxicity. Therefore, these results indicate that the activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway might be involved in the protection of EEPM against H2O2-induced cellular oxidative damage. In conclusion, these results show that EEPM contributes to the prevention of oxidative damage and could be used as a nutritional agent for oxidative stress-related diseases. (C) 2016 Sociedade Brasileira de Farmacognosia. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.</P>

Novel dentin phosphoprotein frameshift mutations in dentinogenesis imperfecta type II

Lee, K‐,E,Kang, H‐,Y,Lee, S‐,K,Yoo, S‐,H,Lee, J‐,C,Hwang, Y‐,H,Nam, KH,Kim, J‐,S,Park, J‐,C,Kim, J‐,W Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011 Clinical genetics Vol.79 No.4

<P>Lee K‐E, Kang H‐Y, Lee S‐K, Yoo S‐H, Lee J‐C, Hwang Y‐H, Nam KH, Kim J‐S, Park J‐C, Kim J‐W. Novel dentin phosphoprotein frameshift mutations in dentinogenesis imperfecta type II.</P><P>The dentin sialophosphoprotein (<I>DSPP</I>) gene encodes the most abundant non‐collagenous protein in tooth dentin and DSPP protein is cleaved into several segments including the highly phosphorylated dentin phosphoprotein (DPP). Mutations in the <I>DSPP</I> gene have been solely related to non‐syndromic form of hereditary dentin defects. We recruited three Korean families with dentinogenesis imperfecta (DGI) type II and sequenced the exons and exon–intron boundaries of the <I>DSPP</I> gene based on the candidate gene approach. Direct sequencing of PCR products and allele‐specific cloning of the highly repetitive exon 5 revealed novel single base pair (bp) deletional mutations (c.2688delT and c.3560delG) introducing hydrophobic amino acids in the hydrophilic repeat domain of the DPP coding region. All affected members of the three families showed exceptionally rapid pulp chambers obliteration, even before tooth eruption. Individuals with the c.3560delG mutation showed only mild, yellowish tooth discoloration, in contrast to the affected individuals from two families with c.2688delT mutation. We believe that these results will help us to understand the molecular pathogenesis of DGI type II as well as the normal process of dentin biomineralization.</P>