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.

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.

On the stochastic elasticity of variance diffusions

Kim, J.H.,Yoon, J.H.,Lee, J.,Choi, S.Y. Butterworths ; Elsevier Science Pub. Co 2015 economic modelling Vol.51 No.-

The elasticity of variance of risky assets has been observed to be rapidly fluctuating around a level. The level itself slowly varies depending upon the corresponding economic situation at the time of consideration. In particular, it turns out to be extraordinary during the peak period of the 2007-2009 Global Financial Crisis. Based on the concept of stochastic elasticity of variance, this paper develops an asset price model in a multiscale form and applies it to the pricing of European options and verifies a significant improvement over the constant elasticity of variance model in terms of the geometric structure (skew or smirk) of implied volatility. Our result implies that a theoretical model based on the random elasticity can derive market's volatility forecast more accurately than the constant elasticity so that investors can employ a dynamic investment strategy reducing risk more effectively.

The effect of household processing on the decline pattern of dimethomorph in pepper fruits and leaves

Kim, S.W.,Abd El-Aty, A.M.,Rahman, Md.M.,Choi, J.H.,Lee, Y.J.,Ko, A.Y.,Choi, O.J.,Jung, H.N.,Hacimuftuoglu, A.,Shim, J.H. Butterworths ; Taylor Francis ; Elsevier Science 2015 FOOD CONTROL Vol.50 No.-

The effects of various household processes, including washing, boiling, frying, parboiling, and drying under different conditions (water amount, boiling times, and temperatures) on the residual levels of dimethomorph were evaluated in pepper fruits and leaves grown under plastic greenhouse conditions. The original quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, safe (QuEChERS) method (after modification) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) were used for extraction and analysis to determine the sample residues. The results of recovery tests in processed and unprocessed pepper fruits and leaves ranged from 73.6 to 106.2% with relative standard deviations of 1.62-12.4%. Among various processes, washing and parboiling (78.4-85.8% at single and 75.7-89.9% at double dose) and drying after washing and parboiling (95.3-97.3% at single dose) were the most effective household methods to attenuate the analyte residues in pepper fruits and leaves, respectively. We conclude that processing leads to extensive reduction of pesticide residue levels in pepper fruits and leaves, particularly following washing and cooking operations.

Skewed stereo time-of-flight camera for translucent object imaging

Lee, S.,Shim, H. Butterworths 2015 Image and vision computing Vol.43 No.-

Time-of-flight (ToF) depth cameras have widely been used in many applications such as 3D imaging, 3D reconstruction, human interaction and robot navigation. However, conventional depth cameras are incapable of imaging a translucent object which occupies a substantial portion of a real world scene. Such a limitation prohibits realistic imaging using depth cameras. In this work, we propose a new skewed stereo ToF camera for detecting and imaging translucent objects under minimal prior of environment. We find that the depth calculation of a ToF camera with a translucent object presents a systematic distortion due to the superposed reflected light ray observation from multiple surfaces. We propose to use a stereo ToF camera setup and derive a generalized depth imaging formulation for translucent objects. Distorted depth value is refined using an iterative optimization. Experimental evaluation shows that our proposed method reasonably recovers the depth image of translucent objects.

Endophytic bacterial diversity in Korean kimchi made of Chinese cabbage leaves and their antimicrobial activity against pathogens

Haque, Md.A.,Lee, J.H.,Cho, K.M. Butterworths ; Taylor Francis ; Elsevier Science 2015 FOOD CONTROL Vol.56 No.-

The diversity of bacterial endophytes associated with Chinese cabbage (CC) leaves from two cultivation areas in Korea, namely, Seosang-gun (SS) and Haenam-gun (HN), and from a laboratory transgenic plant (TP) was investigated. A total of 5.76 log CFU/g isolates were identified from the interior leaves of the three cultivars of CC, which were grouped into 5.08, 5.36, and 5.34 log CFU/g from SS, HN, and TP samples, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA sequences indicated that the isolates belonged to four major phylogenetic groups: high-G + C Gram-positive bacteria (HGCGPB), low-G + C Gram-positive bacteria (LGCGPB), Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. The most predominant group of species in the leaves of the SS, HN and TP CC cultivars were LGCGPB (50%), LGCGPB (65.2%), and HGCGPB (43%), respectively. A total of 23 bacterial genera were identified from the three cultivars of Chinese cabbage. Most extracellular hydrolytic enzyme-producing colonies among the isolates belong to the genus Bacillus those were predominant in the HN cultivars. In addition, some isolates especially Bacillus sp. (TPL08), Bacillus subtilis (SSL16, HNL10) exhibited potential activity as biocontrol agents against food-borne pathogenic bacteria and phytopathogenic fungi tested in this study. This study first revealed the endophytic bacterial communities in leaves of Chinese cabbage (main ingredients of kimchi) grown in Korea.

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.

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>