Empirical approach to determine molecular weight distribution using MALDI-TOF analysis of petroleum-based heavy oil

Kim, J.G.,Kim, J.H.,Song, B.J.,Lee, C.W.,Lee, Y.S.,Im, J.S. Butterworths [etc.] ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2016 Fuel Vol.186 No.-

In this short communication, vacuum residue, bitumen, and pyrolized fuel oil were analyzed using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization - time of flight (MALDI-TOF) analysis to investigate the molecular weight distribution (MWD) variation of heavy oil during visbreaking. The visbreaking of vacuum residue was carried out at 350<SUP>o</SUP>C, 400<SUP>o</SUP>C and 450<SUP>o</SUP>C. Vacuum residue products were studied based on MWD obtained by MALDI-TOF analysis. The separation of MWD was carried out in 8 sections, and each area of the range was calculated. According to our study, the cracking reaction dominated, even though condensation and polymerization were carried out simultaneously. It was noted that the relatively high molecular ranges of 3 and 4 were shifted to the light molecular range of 2. The MWD separation method obtained by MALDI-TOF is a potential analytical tool for investigating the MWD variation of heavy oil.

Development of single nucleotide polymorphism markers from ESTs for discrimination between domestic and imported manila clams, Ruditapes philippinarum

Kim, E.M.,Byun, S.G.,An, C.M.,Kang, J.H.,An, H.S.,Dong, C.M.,Kim, M.J.,Hong, Y.K.,Park, J.Y. Butterworths ; Taylor Francis ; Elsevier Science 2014 FOOD CONTROL Vol.40 No.-

Large amounts of the manila clam, Ruditapes philippinarum, have been imported from Dalian (China) recently to meet the increasing demand in Korea. To ensure the quality and safety of the domestic marine product, it is necessary to be able to distinguish between domestic manila clams and clams that are imported from Dalian, China. We developed expressed sequence tags (ESTs)-derived single nucleotide polymorphism markers using 454 pyrosequencing. A total of 780,000 ESTs were assembled, and 49,540 putative SNPs were identified from 46,405 contigs. Twenty-one polymorphic SNPs from 11 primers were finally selected as diagnostic markers. Genotype analysis showed that 21 SNP markers had the opposite alleles (transitions or transversions) between domestic and imported samples, which were useful for distinguishing clam origins. The GENECLASS 2.0 program was used to estimate the ability of the markers in the discrimination between domestic and imported populations. The 21 SNP markers had 98.96% ability to discriminate domestic manila clams and 100% ability to identify those imported. These markers could be useful for discriminating between domestic and imported manila clams and can contribute to the prevention of falsified labeling of this species.

Stereotactic radiosurgery for primary malignant spinal tumors.

Chang, Ung-Kyu,Lee, Dong Han,Kim, Mi-Sook Butterworths [etc.] 2014 Neurological research Vol.36 No.6

<P>We adopted stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) to treat primary malignant spinal tumors. The objective of this study was to evaluate local control rate and to identify prognostic factors after SRS for primary malignant spinal tumors.</P>

Mycobiota and natural occurrence of aflatoxin, deoxynivalenol, nivalenol and zearalenone in rice freshly harvested in South Korea

Ok, H.E.,Kim, D.M.,Kim, D.,Chung, S.H.,Chung, M.S.,Park, K.H.,Chun, H.S. Butterworths ; Taylor Francis ; Elsevier Science 2014 FOOD CONTROL Vol.37 No.-

The natural fungal mycobiota and contamination by aflatoxins (AFs), deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV), and zearalenone (ZEN) in rice from six locations (80 farms) in South Korea were surveyed during the harvest year 2010. Mycological analysis indicated that Fusarium was the predominant fungal genera, followed by Penicillium, Phoma, Myrothecium, and Cladosporium spp. Within the genus Fusarium, Fusarium graminearum was found most frequently. Polymerase chain reaction analysis targeting the AFs (aflR, omtB, ver-1 and omtA), DON/NIV (tri4, tri5, tri5-tri6, tri7 and tri13) and ZEN (pks4) biosynthetic genes showed that potential ZEN and NIV producers were the most prevalent. A similar trend was observed for the natural occurrence of all four mycotoxins. In both white and brown rice, ZEN was the main mycotoxin contaminant (range 0.4-95.4μg/kg), followed by NIV; AFs and DON were not prevalent. The present study provides a detailed description of the fungi and natural occurrence of these four mycotoxins in rice at harvest, which may help in understanding the population dynamics and in developing effective control measures.

Patent analysis to identify shale gas development in China and the United States

Lee, W.J.,Sohn, S.Y. Butterworths [etc.] ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2014 Energy Policy Vol.74 No.-

Shale gas has become an increasingly important form of hydrocarbon energy, and related technologies reflect the geographical characteristics of the countries where the gas is extracted and stored. The United States (U.S.) produces most of the world's shale gas, while China has the world's largest shale gas reserves. In this research, we focused on identifying the trends in shale-gas related technologies registered to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and to the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO) respectively. To cluster shale-gas related technologies, we text-mined the abstracts of patent specifications. It was found that in the U.S., the key advanced technologies were related to hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, and slick water areas, whereas China had a focus on proppants. The results of our study are expected to assist energy experts in designing energy policies related to technology importation.

A novel monochromatic cue for detecting regions of visual interest

Jung, C.,Kim, W.,Yoo, S.,Kim, C. Butterworths 2014 Image and vision computing Vol.32 No.6

Finding regions of interest (ROIs) is a fundamentally important problem in the area of computer vision and image processing. Previous studies addressing this issue have mainly focused on investigating chromatic cues to characterize visually salient image regions, while less attention has been devoted to monochromatic cues. The purpose of this paper is the study of monochromatic cues, which have the potential to complement chromatic cues, for the detection of ROIs in an image. This paper first presents a taxonomy of existing ROI detection approaches using monochromatic cues, ranging from well-known algorithms to the most recently published techniques. We then propose a novel monochromatic cue for ROI detection. Finally, a comparative evaluation has been conducted on large scale challenging test sets of real-world natural scenes. Experimental results demonstrate that the use of our proposed monochromatic cue yields a more accurate identification of ROIs. This paper serves as a benchmark for future research on this particular topic and a steppingstone for developers and practitioners interested in adopting monochromatic cues to ROI detection systems and methodologies.

Nicotinamide improves glucose metabolism and affects the hepatic NAD-sirtuin pathway in a rodent model of obesity and type 2 diabetes

Yang, S.J.,Choi, J.M.,Kim, L.,Park, S.E.,Rhee, E.J.,Lee, W.Y.,Oh, K.W.,Park, S.W.,Park, C.Y. Butterworths ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2014 The Journal of nutritional biochemistry Vol.25 No.1

Nicotinic acid (NA) and nicotinamide (NAM) are major forms of niacin and exert their physiological functions as precursors of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). Sirtuins, which are NAD-dependent deacetylases, regulate glucose and lipid metabolism and are implicated in the pathophysiology of aging, diabetes, and hepatic steatosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of two NAD donors, NA and NAM, on glucose metabolism and the hepatic NAD-sirtuin pathway. The effects were investigated in OLETF rats, a rodent model of obesity and type 2 diabetes. OLETF rats were divided into five groups: (1) high fat (HF) diet, (2) HF diet and 10 mg NA/kg body weight (BW)/day (NA 10), (3) HF diet and 100 mg NA/kg BW/day (NA 100), (4) HF diet and 10 mg NAM/kg BW/day (NAM 10), and (5) HF diet and 100 mg NAM/kg BW/day (NAM 100). NA and NAM were delivered via drinking water for four weeks. NAM 100 treatment affected glucose control significantly, as shown by lower levels of accumulative area under the curve during oral glucose tolerance test, serum fasting glucose, serum fasting insulin, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, and higher levels of serum adiponectin. With regard to NAD-sirtuin pathway, intracellular nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase, NAD, the NAD/NADH ratio, Sirt1, 2, 3, and 6 mRNA expressions, and Sirt1 activity all increased in livers of NAM 100-treated rats. These alterations were accompanied by the increased levels of proliferator-activated receptor gamma, coactivator 1 alpha and mitochondrial DNA. The effect of NA treatment was less evident than that of NAM 100. These results demonstrate that NAM is more effective than NA on the regulation of glucose metabolism and the NAD-sirtuin pathway, which may relate to the altered mitochondrial biogenesis.

Inactivation of Anisakis larvae in salt-fermented squid and pollock tripe by freezing, salting, and combined treatment with chlorine and ultrasound

Oh, S.R.,Zhang, C.Y.,Kim, T.I.,Hong, S.J.,Ju, I.S.,Lee, S.H.,Kim, S.H.,Cho, J.I.,Ha, S.D. Butterworths ; Taylor Francis ; Elsevier Science 2014 FOOD CONTROL Vol.40 No.-

The effects of freezing (-20 <SUP>o</SUP>C and -40 <SUP>o</SUP>C for 6 h, 12 h, and 1-21 days), salting (5, 10, 15, and 20% NaCl for 3 h, 6 h, 12 h, and 1-7 days), and a combined treatment with chlorine (500, 1000, 1500, and 2000 ppm) and ultrasound (37 kHz frequency and 1200 W for 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 min) were investigated to observe the inactivation of Anisakis larvae in salt-fermented squid and pollock tripe or in the test tube. All larvae inoculated in squid and pollock tripe were inactivated after 48 h at -20 <SUP>o</SUP>C and 24 h at -40 <SUP>o</SUP>C. The average recovery rates of the larvae inoculated in squid and pollock tripe were 94.4% and 95.2%, respectively. The viabilities of larvae were 81.7% in 5% NaCl and 26.7% in 10% NaCl after 7 days of storage. However, all larvae were inactivated when submerged in 15% NaCl after 7 days of storage and 20% NaCl after 6 days of storage. Viability was reduced from 43.3% to 13.3% when ultrasound alone was used to treat live larvae in test tubes for 15-20 min. Furthermore, although no reduction effect on viability of larvae was observed when chlorine alone was used for treatment, 0% viability was observed using the combined treatment of 1500 ppm chlorine and ultrasound for 30 min. Interestingly, when the viscera of heavily parasitized conger eels were treated with chlorine and ultrasound, there was no reduction effect on viability of the larvae on the viscera. These results could be used to provide more specific guidelines for manufacturers and consumers about the freezing and salting conditions necessary to kill Anisakis larvae in salt-fermented squid and pollock tripe.

Stabilization of panoramic videos from mobile multi-camera platforms

Hamza, A.,Hafiz, R.,Khan, M.M.,Cho, Y.,Cha, J. Butterworths 2015 Image and vision computing Vol.37 No.-

Wide field of view panoramic videos have recently become popular due to the availability of high resolution displays. These panoramic videos are generated by stitching video frames captured from a panoramic video acquisition system, typically comprising of multiple video cameras arranged on a static or mobile platform. A mobile panoramic video acquisition system may suffer from global mechanical vibrations as well as independent inter-camera vibrations resulting in a jittery panoramic video. While existing stabilization schemes generally tackle single-camera vibrations, they do not account for these inter-camera vibrations. In this paper, we propose a video stabilization technique for multi-camera panoramic videos under the consideration that independent jitter may be exhibited by content of each camera. The proposed method comprises of three steps; the first step removes the global jitter in the video by estimating collective motion and subsequently removing the high frequency component from it. The second step removes the independent i.e. local jitter of each camera by estimating motion of each camera content separately. Pixels that are located in the overlapping regions of panoramic video are contributed by neighboring cameras, therefore, the estimated camera motion for these pixels is weighted using the blend masks generated by the stitching process. The final step applies local geometric warping to the stitched frames and removes any residual jitter induced due to parallax. Experimental results prove that proposed scheme performs better than existing panoramic stabilization schemes.

Detection of eight genetically modified canola events using two event-specific pentaplex PCR systems

Kim, J.H.,Park, S.B.,Hong, Y.,Kim, H.Y. Butterworths ; Taylor Francis ; Elsevier Science 2015 FOOD CONTROL Vol.51 No.-

An event-specific multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection method was developed to simultaneously detect eight genetically modified (GM) canola events (GT73, MS1, MS8, RF1, RF2, RF3, T45, and Topas 19/2). For a successful multiplex PCR assay, the eight GM canola events were divided into groups 1 and 2 in consideration of their amplicon sizes, primer efficiencies, and target sequences. In addition to the canola endogenous reference gene, FatA, the two pentaplex PCR assays targeted group 1, containing GT73, MS8, RF3, and T45, and group 2, including MS1, RF1, RF2, and Topas 19/2. Event-specific primers targeting the eight GM canola events were designed, and their specificities were confirmed using 14 GM events of maize, soybean, cotton, and canola. After optimizing the reaction conditions, the limits of detection of these two assays were approximately 0.025% for group 1 and 0.0125% for group 2. This multiplex PCR method for eight GM canola events was validated by two operators, and the data confirmed the reliability of the developed assays. The method was used to test commercially available canola seed (eight samples) and meal (one sample) produced in South Korea, China, Canada, and Australia, and the results revealed one or more GM canola events in seven of the nine samples tested. These results show that the developed multiplex system is applicable for use in the specific testing of eight commercially available GM canola events.