Novel telomeric repeat elongation assay performed on zinc oxide nanorod array supports

We developed a highly sensitive and effective telomeric repeat elongation (TRE) assay by exploiting the fluorescence signal enhancing ability of ZnO nanorod (NR) platforms. We report that this novel ZnO NR-based TRE assay can be successfully used for detecting active telomerase. Our TRE assays enable complex biological reactions between many different biological components to take place effectively on various ZnO NR platforms. Therefore, ZnO NRs can effectively determine telomerase activity even at ultratrace concentration level, by functioning as excellent fluorescence enhancing biosupports. We also show the potential of ZnO NR-based TRE assays in a high-throughput and multiplexed screening of active telomerase in a large number of samples. As telomerase is a useful biomarker in cancer diagnosis and screening, our ZnO NR-based TRE assays may prove to be not only useful in basic biological research but also in clinical testing.     

Fabrication of optically enhanced ZnO nanorods and microrods using novel biocatalysts

We developed a straightforward method to produce hexagonal ZnO nanorods and microrods using a novel biocatalyst, Magnetospirillum magnetotacticum. ZnO nanorods were synthesized homogeneously on growth substrates when the bacterial catalysts were deposited uniformly on substrates whereas ZnO microrods were formed when the catalysts were introduced to selective areas of growth substrates using microcontact printing. X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that these ZnO structures exhibit Wurtzite structures with preferential growth along [0001] direction. Room-temperature photoluminescence spectra of the as-synthesized ZnO nanorods and microrods show extremely strong and sharp UV emission at 390 nm and negligible green emission at 510 nm. Our results demonstrate that Magnetospirillum magnetotacticum is an effective catalyst for the growth of nanometer- and micrometer-sized ZnO structures with exceptionally high-quality optical properties. These defect-free ZnO nano-and micro-materials, when combined with microcontact printing techniques to achieve patterned growth over large areas of substrates, can facilitate their photonic-based applications as optoelectronic devices and chemical/biological sensors.     

Determination of paraffin and aromatic hydrocarbon type chemicals in liquid distillates produced from the pyrolysis process of waste plastics by isotope-dilution mass spectrometry

Isotope dilution mass spectrometry was developed for the determination of composition of paraffins, olefins, naphthenes and aromatics in distilled oil produced from the pyrolysis reaction of mixed waste plastics using labeled hydrocarbon internal standards including octane-d₁₈, dodecane-d₂₆, hexadecane-d₃₄, benzene-d₆, toluene-d₈, ethylbenzene-d₁₀, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene-d₁₂ and naphthalene-d₈. This technique made it possible to thoroughly quantify more than three hundred peaks in plastic-derived pyrolysis oil, classify pyrolysis oil into four hydrocarbon groups of paraffin, olefin, naphthene and aromatic, and determine the weight percent of each hydrocarbon group simultaneously. Compared with commercially available petroleum oil, distilled plastic-derived pyrolysis oil contained much more aromatics amounting to 60-82 wt% of whole hydrocarbons. Toluene (C7-benzene) and trimethylbenzenes (C9-benzenes) were the predominant species amounting to 40-50% of whole hydrocarbons in pyrolysis oil with a gasoline range boiling point and 25-35% of whole hydrocarbons in pyrolysis oil with a diesel range boiling point, respectively.     

Thermal and catalytic degradation of waste high-density polyethylene (HDPE) using spent FCC catalyst

Thermal and catalytic degradation using spent fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalyst of waste high-density polyethylene (HDPE) at 430 °C into fuel oil were carried out with a stirred semi-batch operation. The product yield and the recovery amount, molecular weight distribution and paraffin, olefin, naphthene and aromatic (PONA) distribution of liquid product by catalytic degradation using spent FCC catalyst were compared with those by thermal degradation. The catalytic degradation had lower degradation temperature, faster liquid product rate and more olefin products as well as shorter molecular weight distributions of gasoline range in the liquid product than thermal degradation. These results confirmed that the catalytic degradation using spent FCC catalyst could be a better alternative method to solve a major environmental problem of waste plastics. This paper is dedicated to Dr. Youn Yong Lee on the occasion of his retirement from Korea Institute of Science and Technology.     

Thermal degradation of nitrogen-containing polymers, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene and styrene-acrylonitrile

Thermal degradation of nitrogen (N)-containing recycled plastics (styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN), acrylonitrilebutadiene-styrene (ABS)) was carried out in a stirred-batch reactor at 300–400 ‡C under nitrogen stream. The degradation oil began to be generated over 300 ‡C. Recycled SAN plastic was converted to oil with 91.3 wt% yield at 380 ‡C, while only 70.9 wt% of recycled ABS plastics was converted to oil at the same temperature and both oils contained about the same 3.7 wt% nitrogen as an elemental basis. Rate of oil formation from the thermal degradation of SAN was much higher than that of ABS, but showed a similar degradation pattern in terms of chemical composition. In oil products, aromatic contents obtained at 360 ‡C were 70 wt% for SAN and 79 wt% for ABS, respectively, and decreased to 59 wt% and 57 wt% at 380 ‡C with increasing degradation temperature. Dominant product of both degradation oils was styrene, and the following was ethylbenzene for ABS, but none in case of SAN. Both oils contained the N-containing plastic additives that give rise to a confusion for the identification of authentic N-containing degradation products.     

Design and implementation of a protocol offload engine for TCP/IP and remote direct memory access based on hardware/software coprocessing

This paper presents the design and implementation of a protocol offload engine that processes TCP/IP and remote direct memory access (RDMA) protocols by means of hardware/software coprocessing. In the offload engine, time-consuming operations such as TCP/IP header generation are implemented as hardware to improve performance. The software performs control operations and RDMA header generation. In the experiments and analyses, it is proved that the hardware can provide satisfactory performance to process all operations at speeds of over 1 Gbps. Our engine can offload most protocol processing overheads – up to 95% to 100% – from the host CPU. Finally, although the embedded processors operate with a 300 MHz clock that is seven times slower than the clock of the host CPU, our engine shows maximum bandwidths of 673 Mbps for TCP/IP and 551 Mbps for RDMA on a gigabit Ethernet network.     

Hydroperoxide as a Prooxidant in the Oxidative Stability of Soybean Oil

Fifteen milliliters of soybean oil having peroxide value (PV) of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 meq/kg oil in a 35 mL serum bottle was sealed air-tight with a Teflon rubber septum and aluminum cap and was stored in a forced-air oven at 50 °C. The oxidative stability of soybean oil was evaluated daily for six days by measuring the headspace oxygen content and volatile compounds in the headspace of a sample bottle by gas chromatography. As the initial PV of the oil increased from 0 to 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, the headspace oxygen decreased and the volatile compounds increased at p < 0.05. Hydroperoxide accelerated the oxidation of soybean oil. The correlation coefficient (R ²) between the headspace oxygen and the volatile compounds was 0.95. The increase of tertiary butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ) from 0 to 50 ppm for the oil of PV 4 or 8 had a significant effect on the oxidative stability at p < 0.05. The increase from 50 to 100 ppm for the oil of PV 4 or 8 did not significantly increase the stability at p > 0.05. The oxidative stability of PV 8 meq/kg and 50 ppm TBHQ was better than the control with PV 0 and 0 ppm TBHQ at p < 0.05. TBHQ was an effective antioxidant to improve the oxidative stability of soybean oil.     

A comparative study of liquid product on non-catalytic and catalytic degradation of waste plastics using spent FCC catalyst

Non-catalytic and catalytic degradation of waste plastics (high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS)) using spent fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalyst into liquid product were comparatively studied with a stirred semi-batch reactor at 400 ‡C, under nitrogen stream. Liquid product characteristics were described by cumulative distribution as a function of lapse time of reaction, paraffin, olefin, naphthene and aromatic (PONA) composition, and also carbon number distribution on plastic type of reactant. For degradation of waste PE with relatively high degradation temperature, the effect of adding spent FCC catalyst greatly appeared on cumulative distribution of liquid product with a reaction lapse time, whereas those for waste PP and PS with low degradation temperature showed a similar trend in both non-catalytic and catalytic degradation at 400 ‡C. In PONA and carbon number distribution of liquid product, the characteristics of waste PS that was mainly degraded by end chain scission mechanism were not much altered in presence of spent FCC catalyst. However, waste polyolefinic polymer that was degraded by a random chain scission mechanism significantly differed on PONA and carbon number distribution of liquid product with or without spent FCC catalyst. The addition of spent FCC catalyst in degradation of polyolefinic polymer, which economically has a benefit in utilization of waste catalyst, significantly improved the light olefin product by its high cracking ability and also the aromatic product by cyclization of olefin as shape selectivity in micropore of catalyst.     

Synthesis of Densely Immobilized Gold-Assembled Silica Nanostructures

In this study, dense gold-assembled SiO₂ nanostructure (SiO₂@Au) was successfully developed using the Au seed-mediated growth. First, SiO₂ (150 nm) was prepared, modified by amino groups, and incubated by gold nanoparticles (ca. 3 nm Au metal nanoparticles (NPs)) to immobilize Au NPs to SiO₂ surface. Then, Au NPs were grown on the prepared SiO₂@Au seed by reducing chloroauric acid (HAuCl₄₎ by ascorbic acid (AA) in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The presence of bigger (ca. 20 nm) Au NPs on the SiO₂ surface was confirmed by transmittance electronic microscopy (TEM) images, color changes to dark blue, and UV-vis spectra broadening in the range of 450 to 750 nm. The SiO₂@Au nanostructure showed several advantages compared to the hydrofluoric acid (HF)-treated SiO₂@Au, such as easy separation, surface modification stability by 11-mercaptopundecanoic acid (R-COOH), 11-mercapto-1-undecanol (R-OH), and 1-undecanethiol (R-CH₃), and a better peroxidase-like catalysis activity for 5,5′-Tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) reaction. The catalytic activity of SiO₂@Au was two times better than that of HF-treated SiO₂@Au. When SiO₂@Au nanostructure was used as a surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate, the signal of 4-aminophenol (4-ATP) on the surface of SiO₂@Au was also stronger than that of HF-treated SiO₂@Au. This study provides a potential method for nanoparticle preparation which can be replaced for Au NPs in further research and development.     

A Hierarchical Peer-to-Peer Energy Transaction Model Considering Prosumer’s Green Energy Preference

This paper presents a hierarchical peer-to-peer-energy transaction model (P2P-ETM) considering the renewable energy preference. The model divides the characteristics of energy into normal and green energy. Green energy was assumed to be more expensive than normal energy, and prosumers and consumers considered in this model assumed that they have a preference for this green energy. Prosumer and consumer can trade energy with each other and buy normal and green energy from the main-grid. Prosumer can also sell surplus energy to the main-grid. To solve the energy transaction problem, we present a hierarchical approach considering the energy transaction and prosumers’ goal. The purpose of each prosumer such as energy purchase cost minimization or energy sales maximization for energy transaction is considered in the first step as the self-scheduling of prosumers. After prosumers’ self-scheduling we derive the energy transaction price and energy trading capacity through social welfare maximization. The proposed methodology is tested and validated on a virtual network. Through a case study using mixed integer linear programming (MILP), this model has demonstrated a decrease in the total operation cost in accordance with energy trading.