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We developed a hands-free portable device which can provide two-way, real-time audio and video communication between hospital doctors and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) providing pre-hospital care. The device was based on an ultra mobile PC with a camera, a microphone/earphone set and a WIBRO modem for wireless Internet connection at an average data transmission rate of 1 Mbit/s. Feasibility tests were conducted in 55 real emergency situations over a period of three months at five different Rescue Centres in Seoul. Successful communication between an EMT and a doctor was achieved in 46 cases (84%). The device showed acceptable performance in terms of audio/video transmission time delays and maximum transmitted video frame rates, both outdoors, inside a building and in a moving vehicle at 70 km/h. Eight control centre staff and 11 EMTs who used the device completed a questionnaire. Despite acceptable basic performance, the device was found to be limited in terms of the contribution it made to the medical control of EMTs. However, improvements in device performance should produce higher quality pre-hospital emergency medical care in the future.

For dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), highly ordered nanoporous TiO2 materials with crystalline frameworks were successfully synthesized from different silica templates including SBA-15, KIT-6 and MSU-H. A photoelectrode in DSSC was fabricated by adsorbing cis-bis(isothiocyanato)bis(2,2'-bipyridyl-4,4'-dicarboxylato)-ruthenium(II)bis-tetrabutylammonium dye (N719) onto the prepared TiO2 nanoparticles. The samples were characterized by XRD, TEM, FE-SEM, AFM and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and FT-IR analysis. An investigation of the influence of the bonding structure of N719 dye and nanoporous TiO2 on the photovoltaic performance of DSSC revealed that the bonding structure of N719 on TiO2 films is caused by the unidentate and bidentate linkage. Based on the overall conversion efficiency (eta), fill factor (FF), open-circuit voltage (V(oc)) and short-circuit current (/sc) from the I-V curves measured, it was observed that the photoelectric performance is strongly dependent on the dispersion properties of the nanoporous TiO2 replicas from mesoporous silica templates.

A highly ordered nanoporous aluminosilicate (MMZ(USY)) was synthesized using commercially available zeolite USY as the framework source and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as the template. The aluminosilicate was characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption, ICP-AES and TPD. The catalytic performance of the MMZ(USY) material in the conversion of bio-oil was compared with that of Al-MCM-41, which was synthesized using a direct sol-gel method. The highly accessible nanopores, hydrothermal stability and the intermediate acidic properties of MMZ(USY) correlated with the catalytic performance in the conversion of the bio-oil. The MMZ(USY) used in this study showed excellent activity, selectivity and stability for the production of desirable organic compounds, such as phenolics, with a high degree of deoxygenation.

An Asp/His catalytic site of 10-formyltetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase (FDH) was suggested to have a similar catalytic topology with the Asp/His catalytic site of serine proteases. Many studies supported the hypothesis that serine protease inhibitors can bind and modulate the activity of serine proteases by binding to the catalytic site of serine proteases. To explore the possibility that soybean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI) can recognize catalytic sites of FDH and can make a stable complex, we carried out an SBTI-affinity column by using rat liver homogenate. Surprisingly, the Rat FDH molecule with two typical liver proteins, carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) and betaine homocysteine S-methyltransferase (BHMT) were co-purified to homogeneity on SBTI-coupled Sepharose and Sephacryl S-200 followed by Superdex 200 FPLC columns. These three liver-specific proteins make a protein complex with 300 kDa molecular mass on the gel-filtration column chromatography in vitro. Immuno-precipitation experiments by using anti-FDH and anti-SBTI antibodies also supported the fact that FDH binds to SBTI in vitro and in vivo. These results demonstrate that the catalytic site of rat FDH has a similar structure with those of serine proteases. Also, the SBTI-affinity column will be useful for the purification of rat liver proteins such as FDH, CPS1 and BHMT.

In this paper, we report syntheses of silicalite (Si-MFI) zeolite crystals with tetravalent metal ions incorporated to synthesize metallosilicalite (M-MFI; M = Sn, Zr, Sn/Zr, Ti/Zr) zeolite crystals by using microwave irradiation reactions. Beta-Diketonate (acetylacetone) was used as a chelating ligand of the metal precursors, in order to reduce their hydrolysis rates and, therefore, to enhance framework incorporation of each metal in the syntheses of M-MFI zeolites. The zeolite crystals formed show puck-like morphology, and these crystals are stacked to form fibers with the degree of self-assembly varied depending on the nature of the tetravalent metal ion used. Importantly, the self-assembly of the zeolite crystals and the resultant fibrous morphology are observed only when the substituting metal ions are present. Powder X-ray diffraction, infrared and ultraviolet diffuse reflectance spectroscopic data all indicate that Sn and Ti atoms are well substituted for Si, but Zr is not well incorporated in the resulting MFI crystals. These results are discussed in terms of the ionic sizes and bulk dielectric constants of the corresponding metal oxides of the substituting metal ions.

Combining both nano-replication and nano-imprinting techniques using dual silica templates provides a simple way to synthesize ordered mesoporous carbons with bimodal pore size distributions ( approximately 1.5 nm and approximately 3.5 nm).

The silylation of SBA-15 enhances the reducibility of cobalt oxides on a SBA-15 supported cobalt catalyst, and consequently increases the catalytic activity for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of hydrocarbons from syngas and selectivity for longer chain products.

Highly ordered mesoporous materials constructed with integrated polymer-silica hybrid frameworks can be obtained via a one-step synthetic strategy using a mixture of polymer and silicate as the framework sources in the presence of a structure-directing agent.

Adsorption and conversion of various hydrocarbons on monolithic hydrocarbon adsorbers were studied using a new experimental model, temperature-programmed adsorption (TPA). In this study, methyl alcohol, acetone, acetaldehyde, 2,2,4-trimethylpentane, n-octane, and toluene were chosen as model hydrocarbons for cold start of a vehicle. The effect of the hydrocarbon components and oxygen concentration on the TPA curve was investigated. Depending on the presence of O(2), the adsorbed and desorbed amounts of the hydrocarbons were decreased, while the conversion efficiency of the hydrocarbons was increased. In the case of hydrocarbons containing oxygen, the thermal decomposition appeared to be in the order methanol, acetaldehyde, and acetone.

Noble Gemini surfactants containing a siloxane moiety have been designed and successfully synthesized in the present study and are utilized as structure-directing agents for mesoporous metal oxides such as zirconia, titania, and vanadia. The siloxane moiety is believed to play an important nano-propping role during the surfactant removal by direct calcination, yielding thermally stable mesoporous metal oxides. It is also believed that the synthesis strategy described here can be applied to the synthesis of robust nanostructured materials such as nanoparticles and nanorods in addition to mesoporous materials.

Highly ordered mesoporous silica can be regenerated from a mesoporous carbon CMK-3 that is a negative replica of mesoporous silica SBA-15, indicating reversible replication between carbon and inorganic materials.