• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.406-413
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• 2012

Effect of three additives, chitosan, ferric chloride, and MPE50 on membrane fouling reduction was studied. They were introduced with various dosing rate into activated sludge, and changes in filtration resistance measured by the batch cell filtration test were evaluated. Both the filtration resistance and the specific cake resistance were minimized at 20 mg/g-MLSS with chitosan, 70 mg/g-MLSS with ferric chloride, and 20 mg/g-MLSS with MPE50 addition, respectively. Introduction of the additives into the activated sludge resulted in reduction of not only cake resistance, but also fouling resistance. However, the chitosan addition to three different activated sludge resulted in three different optimal dose of 10, 20, 30 mg/g-MLSS, respectively. This implies that the optimal dose is dependent on sludge characteristics rather than a constant value. Overdose above the optimal dosage always aggravated filterability in all cases. Zeta potential of sludge flocs, relative hydrophobicity, floc size distribution, soluble EPS concentration and supernatant turbidity were measured in order to analyze fouling reduction mechanism. Nearly neutral surface charge along with the largest particle size was observed at the optimal dose. This could be explained by particle destabilization and restabilization mechanism as positively charged additives were injected into sludge flocs of negative surface charge. Both soluble EPS concentration and supernatant turbidity also showed the lowest value at the optimal dose. These foulants are believed to be coagulated and entrapped in sludge flocs during flocculation. Chitosan and MPE50 which are cationic polymeric substances showed higher reduction in both soluble EPS and fine particles comparing with ferric chloride.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.204-207
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• 2006

A total of 398 strains of Staphylococcus aureus (99), coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) (99), enterococci (100), Streptococcus pyogenes (18) and Streptococcus agalatiae (82) were in Korean tertiary hospital from Dec. 2004 to Mar, 2005. When minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC), phenotypes and genotypes were determined, 70% of S. aureus, 65.7% of CNS, 78% of enterococci and 37.8% of S. agalatiae were resistant to erythromycin and 95.7% of erythromycin-resistant (EMR) S. aureus, 92.3% of EMR CNS and all of EMR enterococci and S. agalatiae had erm of the methylase gene or msr(A) of the efflux gene.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 2006

A simple and easy modification of AST by disk diffusion was tested for the detection of induced clindamycin resistant Staphylococci and their antimicrobial susceptibility at the same time. The incidence of inducible clindamycin resistant staphylococci in blood culture and their MIC characterization at Seoul National University Hospital was analyzed by an AST contained disk approximation test (D-zone test) and Etest, respectively. Of the total 309 staphylococcal isolates, 139 (45%) isolates presented constitutive resistance to ERY and CLI (ERY-R, CLI-R phenotype), and 59 were ERY-I/R and CLI-S phenotypes. Of the 59 isolates, 19 (32%) isolates were inducible resistant to CLI. The incidence was higher in S. aureus (66.7%) than coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS, 26.0%). Especially, methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRSA, 100%; MRCNS, 45.5%) presented higher inducibility than methicillin susceptible (MSSA, 50%; MSCNS, 20%). For most of the inducible clindamycin resistant staphylococci (15 of 19 isolates), their ERY MIC were high (>$128_{\mu}g/mL$) and were methicillin resistant. The remaining 4 isolates were methicillin susceptible and their ERY MIC were of intermediate concentrations ($1-4_{\mu}g/mL$). We concluded that suscetibility testing of staphylococci, especially methicillin resistant, should include the D-zone test.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2013

The Erm family of adenine-$N^6$ methyltransferases (MTases) is responsible for the development of resistance to macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B antibiotics through the methylation of 23S ribosomal RNA. Recently, it has been proposed that well conserved amino acids in ErnC' located in concave cleft between N-terminal 'catalytic' domain and C-terminal 'RNA-binding' domain interacts with substrate RNA. We carried out the site-directed mutagenesis and studied the function of the ErmSF R237 mutant in vitro and in vivo. R237 amino acid residue is located in the concave cleft between two domains. Furthermore this residue is very highly conserved in almost all the Erm family. Purified mutant protein exhibited only 51% enzyme activity compared to wild-type. Escherichia coli with R237A mutant protein compared to the wild-type protein expressing E. coli did not show any difference in its MIC (minimal inhibitory concentration) suggesting that even with lowered enzyme activity, mutant protein was able to efficiently methylate 23S rRNA to confer the resistance on E. coli expressing this protein. But this observation strongly suggests that R237 of ErmSF probably interacts with substrate RNA affecting enzyme activity significantly.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.42-49
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• 2017

The application of electro-coagulation has been attempted to control the membrane fouling problem in a MBR (Membrane Bio-Reactor). This study examined the effects of the operating parameters (current density and contact time) of the electro-coagulation process on the change in the characteristics of activated sludge. The current density changed from 2.5 to 12, $24A/m^2$, and the contact time was varied from 0 to 2 and 6 hr, respectively. At a current density of $24A/m^2$ and 6 hr of operation, the MLSS changed from 6,800 to 7,000 mg/L (3% increase), but the MLVSS did not increase significantly. After 6 hr of operation, the soluble COD decreased from 71 to 37 mg/L under the $24A/m^2$ condition, from 113 to 67 mg/L under the $12A/m^2$ condition, and from 84 to 80 mg/L under the $2.5A/m^2$ condition. On the other hand, soluble-TN and -TP concentration showed slight changes. The soluble-EPS and Bound-EPS concentration decreased slightly with increasing current density. The membrane filtration performance of activated sludge before and after electro-coagulation was compared. The filtration resistances after electro-coagulation decreased from 6 to 61 %, particularly as the current density and contact time were increased. This indicates that electro-coagulation can be used to control membrane fouling in the MBR process.