• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.105-111
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• 2015

In late December 2013, the Ebola virus emerged from West Africa. The outbreak started in Guinea and rapidly spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Initially, the virus is spread to the human population after contact with infected wildlife and then spread person-to-person through direct contact with body fluids such as blood, sweat, urine, semen, and breast milk. The Ebola virus infects endothelial cells, mononuclear phagocytes and hepatocytes. It causes massive damage to internal tissues and organs, such as blood vessels and the liver, and ultimately death. Most tests for the virus RNA rely on a technology called reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). While this method is highly sensitive, it is also expensive, requiring skilled scientists, and delicate power supplies. The strip analytical technique (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or ELISA) detects antigens or antibodies to the Ebola virus. This test is cheap and does not require electricity or refrigeration. Despite ongoing efforts directed at experimental treatments and vaccine development, current medical work on the Ebola viral disease is largely limited to supportive therapy. Thus, rapid and reliable diagnoses of the Ebola virus are critically important for patient management, infections, prevention, and control measures.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.497-502
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• 1997

A seed pelleting technique was developed for easy handling of small sesame seeds (Chinbaeckkae) and for direct seeding in field. The mixture of pelleting material, binder(sodium alginate) and seeds were dropped in 100mM CaCl$_2$ solution. Charcoal was appeared as a best material among all to make pellets with the characters of hardness, breakdown, destruction rate and germination percentage. Zeolite formed the hardest pellet seeds among the materials and 1~3 seeds contained in a pellet on the treatment of 87g of sesame seeds mixed in 1$\ell$ CaCl$_2$ solution was estimated optimum rate of seed mixure with few appearance of seedless pellet. The moisture absorption rate was greater in the order of peat＋charcoal > peat > charcoal > zeolite. Germination percentage of pelleted seeds with charcoal was the best and similar to that of common non-treated seeds. Germination percentage of pelleted seeds by sowing depth of exposing a quarter of pellet seeds on the surface of vermiculite germination test box and were 92％ in charcoal treatment and was the best among all released materials.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.95-100
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• 2003

Competitive direct enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(cdELISA) of aflatoxin $B_1$ ($AFB_1$) in deonjang(Korean-style soybean paste) and kochujang(fermented hot peppersoybean paste) and the level of $AFB_1$ in modern or traditional style deonjang and gochujang, produced in Korea, was surveyed by cdELISA. From the standard curve of the cdELISA, the detection limit of $AFB_1$ was 0.2 ng/m/. The average recovery of $AFB_1$ was 71.5% in the range of 1~100 ng/g after spiking $AFB_1$ into deonjang and it means that it could be possible to detect the $AFB_1$ in these range by the cdELISA in deonjang. Among the 30 kochujangs tested, no $AFB_1$ was detected in kochujangs. Among the 30 deonjangs, $AFB_1$ was detected in 6 ones in the range of 1.0~6.0 ng/g. The occurrence of $AFB_1$ in deonjang and kochujang tested in this study was less than the Korea Standard and Specification of aflatoxin in foods (10 ppb).

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.352-357
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• 2002

Antimutagenic effects of extracts from curry powder and its individual fourteen kinds of spices, were investigated by Ames test. The antimutagenic effects against a direct mutagen, 2-nitrofluorene(2 -NF) and two indirect mutagens, 2-anthramine(2-AT) and 2-acetamidofluorene (2-AE) in the S. typhimurium TA98 were tested. For the 2-NF, the antimutagenicity of cinnamon, fenugreek, fennel, ginger, clove, turmeric and celery seed were determined as 42, 38, 32, 28, 24, 23 and 20%, respectively. The antimutagenicity of clove against the 2-AT was the highest (116%), and followed by the order of celery seed(103%), cardamon(100%), red pepper(99%), cinnamon(92%), cumin(83%), ginger(82%), fennel(82%), coriander (71%), nutmeg(68%) and turmeric (55%). The results also showed that the antimutagenic effect of clove against the 2-AF was superior to other spices. In case of curry powder among more than 10 kinds of spices, the antimutagenenicity against the 2-AT and 2-AF showed 23% and 6%, respectively, but no effect was observed against the 2-NF.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.261-272
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• 2012

This study was conducted so as to examine which change tDCS (Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation) for improving working memory can make on the EEC of stroke patients. Among the patients who suffered for more than 6 months by hemiparalysis caused by stroke, 20 patients selected by MMSE and DST were randomly divided into I group (10 patients) fulfilled by only CCT and II group (10 patients) fulfilled by both tDCS and CCT for total 4 weeks, 30 minutes per a day, three times per a week. For examining EEC variation, the absolute spectrum power was calculated by three bands (${\theta}$; 4~8 Hz, lower ${\alpha}$; 8~10.5 Hz, upper ${\alpha}$;10.5~13 Hz) during the task of words, photos and mental calculation with EEC test, before the arbitration, after 2 weeks and after 4 weeks, so the rate of increase and decrease (%) for the reference EEC was obtained. As the results, the first, particular aspects different one another in three bands were detected according to the measuring period and task. The second, in the forth week, there was only a significant difference in lower ${\alpha}$-power of all tasks. Therefore, through the procedure measuring EEC of this study, the degree of working memory's damage can be expressed by numerical value and tDCS should be additionally helpful for brain damaged patients' perception rehabilitation.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.495-501
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• 2016

Mineral oil has been widely used as an insulating oil for electrical transformers for a long time, but the necessity of employing new insulation oil such as vegetable oil has been increased due to urgent needs for the biodegradability when it leaks and also for the thermal stability at a higher operation temperature. Although specific periods are required between the production and consumption, there are still short of the data to prove the insulation oils' storage stability depending upon various circumstances and their resources. Thus, this paper demonstrates the insulation oils' oxidation characteristics of both mineral and vegetable oils when each was exposed to different environments for 12 weeks. From this test, some properties including total acid number, water content and dielectric breakdown were changed under specific conditions and resources. Vegetable oils showed higher hydrophilicity and water saturation than those of mineral oils due to their molecular compositions. Under sunlight exposure condition, all insulation oils oxidized and changed their properties when exposing to the direct light, regardless of the resource used.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.919-924
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• 2006

Toxicity evaluation systems for various chemicals and their metabolites have been developed during last decades. In this study, the acute toxicity of endocrine disrupting chemicals, such as endosulfan, bisphenol A, vinclozolin, and 3,5-dichloroaniline, was evaluated using HepG2 cell line, Lumbricus rubellus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, respectively. The extents of toxicity of the chemicals in different bioassay systems varied substantially, such as endosulfan>3,5-dichloroaniline> bisphenol A in HepG2 cell line system, endosulfan>bisphenol A>3,5-dichloro aniline in L. rubellus system, and 3,5-dichloroaniline>endosulfan>bisphenol A in S. cerevisiae system. Meanwhile, no cytotoxicity was observed by treatment of vinclozolin in the evaluation systems. Our results suggest that earthworm and yeast are useful to evaluate acute toxicity of endocrine disrupting chemicals, and direct comparison of toxicity data from different bioassay systems is unattainable. Based on our results, we propose that the bioassay system with earthworm or yeast, a rapid, simple and economic system, could be applied as pre-test for the toxicity evaluation using human cell line or animals.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.415-420
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• 2010

In Korea, oysters are used as an ingredient of Kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage) in early winter. Although viral contamination of oysters, including contamination by norovirus, can provoke gastroenteric illness, little is known of the epidemiological relationship to outbreaks. We postulated that Kimchi ripening can reduce the infectivity of norovirus, in order to test this hypothesis, we carried out a model experiment. Since norovirus is currently regarded as non-culturable, feline calicivirus (FCV) was used as a surrogate to examine the activation of norovirus with Kimchi ripening. In commercial well-prepared Kimchi, the infectivity ($TCID_{50}$) of FCV decreased by 2 log every 12 hours and reached the limit of detection after 48 hours during over-aging at $25^{\circ}C$. During storage at $4^{\circ}C$, the infectivity ($TCID_{50}$) of FCV decreased slowly and reached 5.00 $TCID_{50}$ after 48 hours. The low pH appears to affect the infectivity of FCV directly via organic acids produced by ripening during over-aging and storage. In neutralized lab-prepared Kimchi (pH 7.0), the infectivity ($TCID_{50}$) of FCV also decreased and reached the limit of detection after 72 hours at $4^{\circ}C$. This indicates that there are substances beside organic acids in Kimchi that originate from the raw materials and are produced during ripening. Among the raw materials, salt-fermented anchovies and garlic showed high direct antiviral activity. The main factor decreasing the infectivity of FCV in Kimchi was the high acidity caused by organic acids, regardless of the type, produced by ripening. Furthermore, unknown secondary products of microorganisms associated with Kimchi ripening and antiviral materials originating from raw material might contribute to the decreased infectivity of FCV, the surrogate of norovirus.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.118-124
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• 2005

In this study, a novel deposition method of Pt catalysts onto Nafion membranes modified with polypyrrole (PPy) has been proposed for PEMFC application. The PPy/Nafion composite membranes were fabricated by chemical polymerization of pyrrole using $FeCl_3$ and $Na_2S_2O_8$ as initiator. The proton conductivity and water uptake of the chemically prepared PPy/Nafion composites were investigated. The ionic conductivity and water uptake of PPy/Nafion composite membrane prepared with $Na_2S_2O_8$ were decreased with polymerization time of pyrrole. In the case of $FeCl_3$, the ionic conductivity was almost retained and the water uptake was decreased with polymerization time of pyrrole. When the Pt particle was deposited on PPy/Nafion composites membrane by chemical reduction of $H_2PtCl_6$, the Pt loading on Nafion membrane was enhanced by polypyrrole due to electronic conduction property. The performance evaluation with membrane electrode assembly composed of Pt/PPy/Nafion composite and diffusion electrode was carried out using a single cell. As a result of fuel cell test, current density of $569mA/cm^2$ at 0.3 V has been obtained for MEA contained with Pt/PPy/Nafion composite. This study shows that direct deposition of Pt catalysts on Nafion impregnated polypyrrole is a promising method to prepare thin catalyst layer for the PEMFC.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.53-58
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• 2015

Engineers should take great care of characterizing the engineering properties of mudrock, because the uncemented mudrock can be considered as a hard rock in appearance. Therefore, the mudrock samples obtained from the cut slope in Gyeongki-do were tested to evaluate the strength characteristics of uncemented mudrock in this study. The performed tests are index properties, slake durability, and swelling tests for the classification of the mudrock for engineering practice. To evaluate the effect of water on the engineering properties of the uncemented mudrock, resonant column, triaxial compression and direct shear tests with various water contents were performed. With the increasing water contents, stiffness at very small to small strain region and the cohesion value of the strength parameters decrease. Based on the test results, engineers should take great care of evaluating the engineering properties of uncemented mudrock.