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HemoHIM is a functional food ingredient comprising a triple herbal combination of extracts from Angelica gigasNakai, Cnidium officinaleMakino, and Paeonia lactifloraPallas. It was developed to aid the recovery of impaired immune function. Although it is widely used to treat various immune disorders in Korea, its potential toxicity has not been extensively investigated. Therefore, a comprehensive study was conducted to assess the safety of HemoHIM, including acute oral dose toxicity, 28-day and 13-week repeated-dose toxicity, and genotoxicity. To evaluate its safety profile, the dose was increased to 2,000 mg/kg/day, which corresponds to the dose limit for acute toxicity as per the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Test Guideline 423. No abnormal findings were observed at the higher doses. For the 28-day and 13-week repeated-dose toxicity studies, HemoHIM was administered at doses of 500, 1,000, and 2,000 mg/kg/day to examine subchronic toxicity in male and female rats. No test item-related clinical signs or mortality was observed at any of the tested doses. Gross pathology, hematology, blood chemistry, and histopathology evaluations further supported the safety of HemoHIM. Therefore, the NOAEL of HemoHIM was considered to be at 2,000 mg/kg/day for both sexes of rats. Bacterial reverse mutation tests, a chromosome aberration test in human peripheral blood lymphocytes, and a mouse micronucleus test were conducted to determine the genotoxicity of HemoHIM, which revealed that HemoHIM was non-mutagenic and non-clastogenic. Collectively, these findings provide valuable evidence to support the safe use of HemoHIM as a functional food ingredient.

HemoHIM G is a functional food ingredient composed of a triple herbal combination of Angelica sinensis, Ligusticum chuanxiong, and Paeonia lactiflora, to improve impaired immune function. Considering the pharmacological benefits of its constituent herbal components, HemoHIM G is anticipated to have various health benefits; however, its toxicity has not been thoroughly evaluated. Here, we conducted a comprehensive study to assess the safety of HemoHIM G in terms of acute oral toxicity, 13-week repeat-dose toxicity, and genotoxicity. In the oral acute toxicity study, Sprague–Dawley rats were orally administered a single dose of HemoHIM G at 5000 mg/kg/day, the limit dose for the acute study. No abnormal findings or adverse effects were observed in this study, as confirmed by gross pathology. A 13-week repeated-dose toxicity study was conducted with HemoHIM G at doses of 1250, 2500, and 5000 mg/kg/day to examine the subchronic toxicity in both male and female rats after 28 days of dose-range finding study. No test substance-related clinical signs or mortality was observed at any of the tested doses. Gross pathology, hematology, blood chemistry, and histopathology were within normal ranges, further supporting the safety of HemoHIM G. Therefore, the NOAEL of HemoHIM G was considered to be at 5000 mg/kg/day for both sexes of rats. Bacterial reverse mutation tests, a chromosome aberration test in human peripheral blood lymphocytes, and a mouse micronuclei test were conducted to identify the potential genotoxicity of HemoHIM G. HemoHIM G is non-mutagenic and non-clastogenic. Collectively, these findings provide valuable evidence for the safe use of HemoHIM G as a functional food ingredient.

We have reported the effect of support pretreatment with ammonia on Pd/SiO2 catalyst in this study. SiO2 was pretreated with ammonia water to increase the Pd dispersion before the preparation of Pd/SiO2 catalysts. The effect of support pretreatment with ammonia on Pd/SiO2 catalyst was investigated by XRD, FT-IR, N2-adsorption and FE-TEM. The Pd supported on pretreated SiO2 were characterized by XRD, CO-chemisorption and FE-TEM. The pretreatment of SiO2 with ammonia water lead to decrease of silanol groups (Si-OH) up to temperature 200 °C. This decline of silanol groups on the SiO2 affects highly dispersed Pd/SiO2 as 6.52 %. The result showed that the decrease of silanol group on the SiO2 was favorable for the Pd dispersion. It is reason that absence of the silanol groups contribute to the high metal reducibility.

This paper reports the results of a field evaluation which used sampling and analytical methods to determine the levels of airborne hexavalent chromium Cr(VI) in major industrial complexes in Korea over a seven year period (2007–2013). Cr(VI) concentrations were determined using cellulose filter sampling and ion chromatography analysis. In order to validate the analytical performance of these methods, studies were also carried out to investigate data quality control (QC) parameters, such as the method detection limit (MDL), repeatability, and recovery efficiencies. The average concentrations of Cr(VI) for the nine industrial complexes in Korea were in the range of 0.09 to 1.40 ng/m3, which is similar to of the concentrations in other industrial areas around the world. The impacts of Cr(VI) emissions from industrial areas on Cr(VI) concentrations in neighboring-residential areas were considerably low, and the dispersion of Cr(VI) from industrial areas to residential areas was estimated to be ‘not-significant’. Cr(VI) levels were not affected by seasonal variation, which suggests that chromium was emitted continuously from the industrial sources throughout the year. The concentration of Cr(VI) measured accounted for 0.7 to 9.4 percent of the total chromium level, which is a low percentage compared to those in other urban areas around the world. This is the first report in an international journal of a field study conducted in Korea to determine the concentration of Cr(VI) in the ambient air of industrial and residential areas.

Ni recycling from Fe-Ni alloy scrap was successfully performed by Mg reaction and distilling process. Ni component in Fe-Ni alloy scraps dissolve selectively in molten magnesium metal and then vacuum distilling was applied to remove Mg from Mg-Ni liquid. Above 1,073K in dissolving stage, more than 99% Ni from scraps was recovered and under the distilling process at 1,273K, 10-5 torr, the high quality Ni with 99.5% could be obtained. This study suggests the recycling process of Ni in Fe-Ni scrap with the combination of Mg reaction and distilling process.

Vanadium metal powder was successfully synthesized by combination reduction process with hydrogen gas and liquid magnesium. V2O5 as a raw material was first reduced by hydrogen gas to produce V2O3 at 873K for 3 hours and then it was reduced by liquid magnesium at 1,073K for 48 hours to become final vanadium powder. The microstructure and chemical composition of pure vanadium powder fabricated were examined by SEM(Scanning Electron Microscopy) and EDX(energy dispersive spectroscopy), respectively. The oxygen content of vanadium powder was finally found to be 0.5 wt.% showing the structure loosely agglomerated with fine particles of about 1~2μm.

By combining state‐of‐the‐art microscopy, spectrosccopy, and first‐principles calculations, atomic‐scale intermixing behavior at heterointerfaces in SrTiO3‐based superlattices is investigated. It is found that Nb is confined to a unit‐cell thickness without intermixing, whereas Ba diffuses only to the adjoining Nb‐doped SrTiO3layer. It is revealed that the intermixing behaviors at the heterointerfaces are determined by not only the migration energy, but also by the vacancy‐formation energy and the Fermi energy of each layer. Based on these results, we find a method to control the atomic‐scale intermixing at the nonpolar heterointerfaces and clearly demonstrate the property improvements obtained by constructing an abrupt heterointerface.

ABSTRACTHelicobacter pyloricauses diseases ranging from gastritis to peptic ulcer disease to gastric cancer. Geographically, areas with high incidences of H. pyloriinfection often overlap with areas with high incidences of gastric cancer, which remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Strains of H. pylorithat carry the virulence factor cytotoxin-associated gene A (cagA) are much more likely to be associated with the development of gastric cancer. Moreover, particular C-terminal polymorphisms in CagA vary by geography and have been suggested to influence disease development. We conducted a large-scale molecular epidemiologic analysis of South Korean strains and herein report a statistical link between the East Asian CagA EPIYA-ABD genotype and the development of gastric cancer. Characterization of a subset of the Korean isolates showed that all strains from cancer patients expressed and delivered phosphorylatable CagA to host cells, whereas the presence of the cagAgene did not strictly correlate to expression and delivery of CagA in all noncancer strains.

AbstractAmbient measurements were made using two sets of annular denuder system during the four seasons (April 2001 to February 2002) and were then compared with the results during the period of 1996–1997 to estimate the trends and seasonal variations in concentrations of gaseous and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) principal species. Annual averages of gaseous HNO3and NH3increased by 11% and 6%, respectively, compared with those of the previous study, whereas HONO and SO2decreased by 11% and 136%, respectively. The PM2.5concentration decreased by ∼17%, 35% for SO42−, and 29% for NH4+, whereas NO3−increased by 21%. Organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) were 12.8 and 5.98 μg/m-3, accounting for ∼26 and 12% of PM2.5concentration, respectively. The species studied accounted for 84% of PM2.5concentration, ranging from 76% in winter to 97% in summer.Potential source contribution function (PSCF) analysis was used to identify possible source areas affecting air pollution levels at a receptor site in Seoul. High possible source areas in concentrations of PM2.5, NO3−, SO42−, NH4+, and K+were coastal cities of Liaoning province (possibly emissions from oil-fired boilers on ocean liners and fishing vessels and industrial emissions), inland areas of Heibei/Shandong provinces (the highest density areas of agricultural production and population) in China, and typical port cities (Mokpo, Yeosu, and Busan) of South Korea. In the PSCF map for OC, high possible source areas were also coastal cities of Liaoning province and inland areas of Heibei/Shandong provinces in China. In contrast, high possible source areas of EC were highlighted in the south of the Yellow Sea, indicating possible emissions from oil-fired boilers on large ships between South Korea and Southeast Asia. In summary, the PSCF results may suggest that air pollution levels in Seoul are affected considerably by long-range transport from external areas, such as the coastal zone in China and other cities in South Korea, as well as Seoul itself.

AbstractIn this paper, the following two important issues of iterative learning control are considered : i) the robustness to the initial error and ii) the convergence in the sense of sup-norm. The main theme of this paper is how to design an iterative learning controller in order to make the learning algorithm to be more robust to the initial error and/or guarantee the exponential convergence in the sense of the sup-norm. To this end, we restrict our attention to the PD-type learning law and study its properties about the two issues. The results show that the pure error term in PD-type learning law is closely related to the two issues. Based on the investigated properties of the PD-type learning law, a design guide-line is given for the selection of the learning gains.

Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori)-activated neutrophils produce the oxygen-derived free radicals (OFRs) which play an important role in gastric mucosal cell damage. Rebamipide (2-(4-chlorobenzoylamino)-3-[2-(1H)-quinolinon-4-yl] propionic acid) is an antiulcer compound, which protects gastric mucosa against OFR-mediated injury. In order to investigate the effects of rebamipide on OFR production and to compare the antioxidant activity of rebamipide with those of three known antioxidants, N-acetylcysteine (AC), ascorbic acid (Vit C) and glutathione (GSH), the antioxidant activities were determined by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence (ChL) assay and pyrogallol autoxidation assay. The ChL value was markedly elevated immediately after the addition of H. pyloriinto the medium containing neutrophils. The antioxidant activity of 1.0 mM rebamipide was greater than that of 0.1 mM rebamipide in the luminol-dependent ChL assay, while in the pyrogallol autoxidation assay, the antioxidant activity of 1.0 mM rebamipide was similar to that of 0.1 mM rebamipide. Rebamipide inhibited OFR generation in the pyrogallol autoxidation assay, with the potency being in the order of GSH > Vit C > rebamipide > AC. In the luminol-dependent ChL assay, the antioxidant activity of rebamipide was the greatest among them. These results indicate that rebamipide is a potent antioxidant and scavenges OFRs produced by H. pylorieffectively in luminol-dependent ChL assays.

In this paper, we investigate some effects of errors in the initial conditions as a learning control algorithm is iteratively applied. We show that the pure error term in the learning control law can be positively utilized to improve the system performance, making it robust against varying initial conditions. For better performance in the face of variable initial conditions, we propose a method of 'iterative learning control with multi-modal input'. In this proposed control method, an input is synthesized based on the state of initial condition. Numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed learning control algorithm.

The biosorption and desorption of Cr, Cu and Al were carried out using brown marine algaeSargassum fluitansbiomass, known as the good biosorbent of heavy metals. The content of alginate bound to light metals could be changed by physical and chemical pretreatment. The maximum uptake of Cr, Cu and Al was independent of the alginate content. The maximum uptake of Al was two times(mole basis) than those of Cu and Cr. The aluminum-alginate complex was found in the sorption solution of raw and protonated biomass. Most of Cu, Al and light metals sorbed in the biomass were eluted at pH 1.1. However, only 5 to 10% of Cr sorbed was eluted at pH 1.1. The stoichometric ion exchange between Cu and Ca ion was observed on Cu biosorption with Ca-loaded biomass. A part of Cr ion was bound to biomass as Cr(OH)2+or Cr(OH)2+. Al was also bound to biomass as multi-valence ion and interfered with the desorbed Ca ion. The behavior of rawS. fluitansin ten consecutive sorption-desorption cycles has been investigated in a packed bed flow-through-column during a continuous removal of copper from a 35 mg/L aqueous solution at pH 5. The eluant used was a 1%(w/v) CaCl/HCl solution at pH3.