Silver nitrate (AgNO3) powder was mixed into a reformed pitch precursor. Then, the silver-containing pitch was melt spun to form round and "C" shape fibers. A wire mesh was inserted prior to the nozzle to improve the spinnability of the silvercontaining precursor pitch. Silver particles in the carbon fibers (CFs) were detected by XRD and TEM. These tests showed that silver particles were uniformly distributed and the total amount of silver remained constant during stabilization and carbonization. Next, the silver-containing CFs were activated by steam diluted in nitrogen gas. Silver particles accelerated the activation rate, but the specific surface areas of the silver-containing ACFs were similar to those of non-silver containing ACFs at the same burn-off levels. The specific surface area of the C-shaped activated carbon fibers was larger than that of the round activated carbon fibers. The likely reason is that the surface area of a C-shaped CF is about two times larger than that of a round CF when equivalent cross-sectional areas are compared. A small amount of silver particles in the periphery of the CFs was removed during the activation, but the remainder of silver was stayed within the ACFs.

DNA methylation at CpG sites, which is a epigenetic modification, is associated with gene expression without change of DNA sequences. During early mouse embryogenesis, dynamic changes of DNA methylation occur. In this study, DNA methylation patterns of porcine embryos produced in vivo and in vitro were examined at various developmental stages by the immunocytochemical staining method. Interestingly, active demethylation was not observed on the paternal pronucleus of porcine zygotes. However, differences were detected in the passive demethylation process between in vivo and in vitro embryos. There was no change in the DNA methylation state until the blastocyst stage of in vivo embryos, whereas partial demethylation was observed in several blastomeres from a 4 cell stage to a morula stage of in vitro embryos. The whole genome of inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm (TE) cells in porcine blastocysts were evenly methylated without de novo methylation. Our findings demonstrate that genome-wide demethylation does not occur in pig embryos during preimplantation development unlike murine and bovine embryos. It indicates that the machinery regulating epigenetic reprogramming may be different between species.