Purpose Rhei Rhizoma (RR) is one of the herbal medicines traditionally used to treat diverse inflammatory diseases. The present study was undertaken to elucidate the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of Rhei Rhizoma on experimental reflux esophagitis (RE) in rats. Methods The antioxidant activity of RR in vitro was measured in terms of radical scavenging capacity such as DPPH and ABTS. RE was produced by ligating both the pylorus and the transitional junction between the forestomach and the corpus. Rhei Rhizoma (125 and 250 mg/kg) were administered every day for 7 days, and its effect was estimated on comparison with RE control and normal rats. Results RR scavenged DPPH and ABTS effectively and IC50ofDPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity of RR were 4.8 μg/ml and 15.75 μg/ml. The administration of RR decreased the elevated serum ROS in RE control rats. The RE control rats exhibited the down-regulation of antioxidant-related proteins such as Nrf2 and HO-1expression levels in the esophagitis; however, the level in the RR-treated RE rats was significantly higher than that in the RE control rats. Moreover, RE control rats exhibited the up-regulation of the protein expression related to oxidative stress at the esophagitis, but RR administration significantly reduced the expression of inflammatory proteins through the MAPK-independent signaling pathways. The expression of inflammatory mediators and cytokines by NF-κB activation was modulated through blocking the degradation of IκBα. In addition, the oral administration of RR regulated the gastric mucosal damage in RE rats. Conclusion The administration of Rhei Rhizoma effectively ameliorates the inflammatory damage of esophageal mucosa through radical scavenging activity and the activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway.

A rapid chemical dewatering of the in-situ hydraulically dredged coastal sediment suspensions treated with cationic cetyl-trimethyl-ammonium-bromide (CTAB) was investigated. The dewatering process consisted of coating or adsorption of the surfactant on the surface of sediment to change its hydrophobicity and hexane spraying to enhance moisture removal from the sediment surface. The dredged wet sediment sample was wet-sieved with the #450 sieve (32 μm) and synthetic sea-water made of bay salt (3.5%). The sieved sediment was settled and then freeze-dried. Considering the field process, the freeze-dried sediment was pre-treated by adding 5 M H2O2 and 0.5% Tween 80 to remove organics in the sediment and then adding 0.5% alum and 0.001% PAC for flocculation. The mean water content of the pre-treated sediment was 55.8~59.1%. The CTAB dosage was in the range of 0.001 to 1.0 g per 10 g of the pre-treated sediment (0.01 to 0.10 (wt/wt) of CTAB/sediment ratio). After addition, the sediment and CTAB mixture was mixed thoroughly by using a vortex followed by freeze-dried. For hydrophobicity test, 0.5 g of the freeze-dried samples were taken into the two-layer solutions mixed with hexane (20 mL) and deionized water (20 mL). The higher amount of the samples were migrated into the hexane layer as the CTAB dosage increased to 0.1 g (Fig. 1), indicating that the surface charge of the sediment was neutralized by electrostatic attraction of negative charged sediment particles with cationic CTAB. The additional dosage of CTAB to 1.0 g per 10 g sediment led to transfer some of the sediment back into the water layer (Fig. 1). The optimum dosage of CTAB was 0.1 to 0.2 g per 10 g sediment. The sediments with the optimum dosage were transferred onto the filter paper and treated with spraying 0.25 to 1.0 mL of hexane per 1 g sediment, resulting in the significant decrease in the water content to 21% at 1.0 mL hexane/g sediment.

Pollutants generated by the biodegradation of livestock carcasses have the potential for contamination of the environment. Hence, livestock mortalities burial has been banned in the EU. In spite of the hazard, research on the biodegradation of livestock carcasses is lacking. In this study, five lysimeters were used to evaluate the enhanced biodegradation of organic materials in livestock mortalities burial. Lysimeter 1(control), lysimeter 2(grinding of livestock carcass), lysimeter 3(anaerobic microorganisms), lysimeter 4(Corynebacterium glutamicum in anaerobic condition) and lysimeter 5(Corynebacterium glutamicum in aerobic condition) were operated with temperature control. The degradation efficiencies of livestock carcass in the lysimeters were evaluated based on total organic carbon balance. The degradation efficiencies of ground livestock carcass were 1.9 times more than those of livestock carcass without grinding. In anaerobic condition, anaerobic microorganisms were more effective compared with Corynebacterium glutamicum on the biodegradation of livestock carcasses. However, the degradation efficiencies with Corynebacterium glutamicum in aerobic condition were significantly influenced on the biodegradation of livestock carcasses. Even if it would be helpful to degrade the livestock carcass in aerobic condition in terms of stabilization, potential risks on the environment by odor and bioaerosol must be solved.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the applicability of the microbial fuel cell for the combined treatment of food waste water and landfill leachate. Contents of the study was to develop a carbon-containing electrode material radially to maximize microbial attachment. Also to evaluate the electric energy production efficiency by combining the electrode surface coating technology. By using a microbial fuel cell organic matter and nitrogen removal efficiency is evaluated for the food waste water and landfill leachate. BET to evaluate the surface characteristics of the developing electrode (Brunauer Emmett Teller) To evaluate the coating adhesion through measurement and to evaluate the adhesion characteristics micro-organism Weighing. Excellent electrical conductivity in the development electrode platinum, cobalt, by coating a catalyst such as palladium and to evaluate the electric energy generation efficiency. Lab. scale reactor capacity is a 5 L, and to configure the cross-section and the oxidizing electrode as cathode sequentially added.

Livestock Wastewater shall cause a high concentration of organic matter and nutrients such as rivers because of the lake and groundwater contamination, such as the accumulation of nutrients in the soil contained in the manure, livestock wastewater containing large amounts of organic matter that will flow to the river or appeal If eutrophication, and comfortable living environment to cause harm, such as odor and pest damage and can. Organic waste and organic waste, such as the world has a direct interest in acquiring the available resources and the development of clean energy from waste is a growing desire, is expected to contribute to the environment from waste materials industry growth by developing innovative technologies such as direct electrical energy production. In the case of livestock waste water and high concentration of organic material in addition to containing ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen for nitrification is created due to the electron acceptor is used as the fuel cell according to this has been reported to decrease the efficiency of electricity production. Therefore, to derive the electricity production efficiency due to organic concentration and ammonia nitrogen concentration in order to apply a microbial fuel cell (MFC) livestock wastewater treatment process in this study, and to derive the energy production potential with livestock waste water through the study. Lab. scale Reactor fabrication and operation to try to derive the reaction factor of the optimum operating conditions in accordance with the livestock wastewater applied through the evaluation of trends and removal efficiency of organic matter and nutrients in the microbial fuel cell. In addition, from the final research results, I try to present the direction of future research for the improvement of application possibilities and microbial fuel cell power generation efficiency of microbial fuel cell in the livestock wastewater treatment facilities.

Dewatering for reduction of moisture content in sludge cake is one of the main procedure in sludge treatment processing. Through dehydration process, the volume of sludge cake are substantially decreased. It led efficiency improvement of further processing such as transport and disposal of sludge as well as drying cake could be utilized as solid refuse fuel. Microwave dryer is energy efficient process in comparison with thermal types. For these reason, we developed microwave dryer for real field applications. Firstly, with 4kW scale microwave dryer, operation conditions were optimized in terms of generator power, shape of drying champer, and height of microwave generator. Based on the results, 10kW scale microwave dryer was designed and manufactured successfully.

This study aimed to completely remove adhered mortar from recycled aggregate (RA) using microwave irradiation (700 W) and mixed solution of hydrochloric acid (HCl) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The optimum condition was first to soak RA in tap water for 30 min and then RA was soaked in mixed solution of 30% HCl and 15% H2O2 (HCl : H2O2 = 1 : 2) for 70-90 min after 15-min microwave irradiation. Therefore, the mortar of RA in the condition was completely removed within 2.3 hrs. Reaction rate (k) with the condition was –0.6408 hr-1, which was about 190 times faster than that with HCl only (k = -0.0032 hr-1).

Slaughter of cattle, pigs, and chickens has increased continuously. In particular, slaughter of chickens has been grown up about 150% in 2010 than that in 2003, that is approximately 120,000 tons. All of them are underwent consigned treatment even though those can be used as a resource and an energy source. With this regards, THR (Thermal Hydrolysis Reaction) leads to reduce water content drastically (<30% in sludge cakes). In addition, Dehydrated solid would be re-used as solid fuels (SRF) as well. In this study, We have applied THR to a plant (10 ton/day) on the basis of our lab and pilot results. Water content of sludge cakes showed with a ranges of 30 to 40% after solid-liquid separation. Dairy SRF produced 1.5 ton/day and its heat capacity for SRF has 6,500 kcal/kg. This gave the steam produced about 12 ton/day throughout the plant operation, suggesting that THR system would expect energy savings.

This study focused on the alternative to estimate the demand of employment in Kenya logistics. First of all, it investigated the importance and necessity of search about the present circumstance of the country’s industry. Next, it reviewed respectively the concept and limitation of several previous models for employment, including Bureau of Labor Statistics, USA; ROA, Netherlands; IER (Institute for Employment Research), UK; and IAB, Germany. In regard to the demand forecasting of employers in logistics, it could anticipate more realistically the future demand by the time-lag approach. According to the findings, if value of output record 733,080 KSH million in 2015 and 970,640 in 2020, compared to 655,222 in 2013, demand on wage employment in logistics industry would be reached up to 95,860 in 2015 and 104,329 in 2020, compared to about 89,600 in 2012. To conclude, this study showed the more rational numbers about the demand forecasting of employment than the previous researches and displayed the systematic approach to estimate industry manpower in logistics.

Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) is a prominent mean of controlling structural vibration. Typically the TMDs are installed at the top of the structure. In this study, the effectiveness of the multiple tuned mass dampers (MTMD) distributed along with the height of structure is investigated for seismic loading. A ten storey building with lateral degree of freedom is modeled with distributed tuned mass dampers in the platform of MatLab R2010a. Though the first mode of a MDOF system dominates in response of the structure, it is also observed that the other mode can also have a significant role in the response reduction. Suitable location for the installation of the TMDs and there tuning frequencies are selected based on the mode shape and frequencies of the uncontrolled structure respectively. It is observed that distributed TMD is more effective than Single TMD and Multiple TMD installed at top of the structure in response reduction.

Forbush Decreases (FD) are transient, sudden reductions of cosmic ray (CR) intensity lasting a few days, to a week. Such events are observed globally using ground neutron monitors (NMs). Most studies of FD events indicate that an FD event is observed simultaneously at NM stations located all over the Earth. However, using statistical analysis, previous researchers verified that while FD events could occur simultaneously, in some cases, FD events could occur non-simultaneously. Previous studies confirmed the statistical reality of non-simultaneous FD events and the mechanism by which they occur, using data from high-latitude and middle-latitude NM stations. In this study, we used long-term data (1971-2006) from middle-latitude NM stations (Irkutsk, Climax, and Jungfraujoch) to enhance statistical reliability. According to the results from this analysis, the variation of cosmic ray intensity during the main phase, is larger (statistically significant) for simultaneous FD events, than for non-simultaneous ones. Moreover, the distribution of main-phase-onset time shows differences that are statistically significant. While the onset times for the simultaneous FDs are distributed evenly over 24- hour intervals (day and night), those of non-simultaneous FDs are mostly distributed over 12-hour intervals, in daytime. Thus, the existence of the two kinds of FD events, according to differences in their statistical properties, were verified based on data from middle-latitude NM stations.

We have launched an investigation for Embryonic Development, Larvae and Juvenile Morphology, of Buenos aires tetra in order to build basic data of Characidae and fish seeding production. We brought 50 couples of Characidae from Bizidduck aquarium in Yeosu-si, Jeollanamdo, from Korea on March of 2015. We put them in the tetragonal glass aquarium (50×50×30 cm). Breeding water temperature was 27.5~28.5°C (mean 28.0±0.05°C) and being maintained. The shape of fertilized egg was round shape, and it was adhesive demersal egg. The egg size was 0.63~0.91 mm (mean 0.74±0.07 mm, n=20). After getting fertilized egg, the developmental stage was gastrula stage, and embryo covered almost two-thirds of Yolk. Incubation was happened after 16 hours 13 minutes from gastrula stage, and the tail of juvenile came out first with tearing egg capsule. Immediately after the incubation, prelarvae had 3.78~3.88 mm length (mean 3.84±0.04 mm, n=5), and it had no mouth and anus yet. 34 days after hatching from the incubation, juvenile had 8.63~13.1 mm (mean 10.9±1.66 mm), and it had similar silver-colored body shape with its mother.

We have carried out photometric follow-up observations of bright transiting extrasolar planets using the CbNUOJ 0.6 m telescope. We have tested the possibility of obtaining high photometric precision by applying the telescope defocus technique, allowing the use of several hundred seconds in exposure time for a single measurement. We demonstrate that this technique is capable of obtaining a root-mean-square scatter of sub-millimagnitude order over several hours for a V ~10 host star, typical for transiting planets detected from ground-based survey facilities. We compared our results with transit observations from a telescope operated in in-focus mode. High photometric precision was obtained due to the collection of a larger amount of photons, resulting in a higher signal compared to other random and systematic noise sources. Accurate telescope tracking is likely to further contribute to lowering systematic noise by exposing the same pixels on the CCD. Furthermore, a longer exposure time helps reduce the effect of scintillation noise which otherwise has a significant effect for small-aperture telescopes operated in in-focus mode. Finally we present the results of modelling four light-curves in which a root-mean-square scatter of 0.70 to 2.3 milli-magnitudes was achieved.

Earth’s magnetopause separating the fast and often turbulent magnetosheath and the relatively stagnant magnetosphere provides various forms of free energy that generate low-frequency surface waves. The source mechanism of this energy includes current-driven kinetic physical processes such as magnetic reconnection on the dayside magnetopause and flux transfer events drifting along the magnetopause, and velocity shear-driven (Kelvin-Helmholtz instability) or density/ pressure gradient-driven (Rayleigh-Taylor instability) magnetohydro-dynamics (MHD) instabilities. The solar wind external perturbations (impulsive transient pressure pulses or quasi-periodic dynamic pressure variations) act as seed fluctuations for the magnetopause waves and trigger ULF pulsations inside the magnetosphere via global modes or mode conversion at the magnetopause. The magnetopause waves thus play an important role in the solar wind-magnetosphere coupling, which is the key to space weather. This paper presents recent findings regarding the generation of surface waves (e.g., Kelvin- Helmholtz waves) at the Earth’s magnetopause and analytic and observational studies accountable for the linking of the magnetopause waves and inner magnetospheric ULF pulsations, and the impacts of magnetopause waves on the dynamics of the magnetopause and on the inner magnetosphere.