• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.193-198
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• 2008

$WO_3$-doped $SnO_2$ thin films were prepared in a solution-deposition method and their gas-sensing characteristics were investigated. The doping of $WO_3$ to $SnO_2$ increased the response ($R_a/R_g,\;R_a$: resistance in air, $R_g$: resistance in gas) to $H_2$ substantially. Moreover, the $R_a/R_g$ value of 10 ppm CO increased to 5.65, whereas that of $NO_2$ did not change by a significant amount. The enhanced response to $H_2$ and the selective detection of CO in the presence of $NO_2$ were explained in relation to the change in the surface reaction by the addition of $WO_3$. The $WO_3$-doped $SnO_2$ sensor can be used with the application of a $H_2$ sensor for vehicles that utilize fuel cells and as an air quality sensor to detect CO-containing exhaust gases emitted from gasoline engines.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.883-893
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• 2021

Clostridium difficile present in feces of food animals may contaminate their meats and act as a potential source of C. difficile infection (CDI) to humans. C. difficile resistance to antibiotics, its production of toxins and spores play major roles in the pathogenesis of CDI. This is the first study to evaluate C. difficile prevalence in retail raw animal meats, its antibiotics susceptibilities and toxigenic activities in Al-Jouf, Saudi Arabia. Totally, 240 meat samples were tested. C. difficile was identified by standard microbiological and biochemical methods. Vitek-2 compact system confirmed C. difficile isolates were 15/240 (6.3%). Toxins A/B were not detected by Xpect C. difficile toxin A/B tests. Although all isolates were susceptible to vancomycin and metronidazole, variable degrees of reduced susceptibilities to moxifloxacin, clindamycin or tetracycline antibiotics were detected by Epsilon tests. C. difficile strains with reduced susceptibility to antibiotics should be investigated. Variability between the worldwide reported C. difficile contamination levels could be due to absence of a gold standard procedure for its isolation. Establishment of a unified testing algorithm for C. difficile detection in food products is definitely essential to evaluate the inter-regional variation in its prevalence on national and international levels. Proper use of antimicrobials during animal husbandry is crucial to control the selective drug pressure on C. difficile strains associated with food animals. Investigating the protective or pathogenic potential of non-toxigenic C. difficile strains and the possibility of gene transfer from certain toxigenic/ antibiotics-resistant to non-toxigenic/antibiotics-sensitive strains, respectively, should be worthy of attention.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.579-587
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• 2023

In this study, rumen temperature and environment in estral and non-estral Korean Native breeding cattle were evaluated by using a bolus sensor. Behavioral and physiological changes in study animals were also assessed. To assess the rumen temperature and environment, we inserted bolus sensors into 12 Korean Native cattle with an average age of 35.5 months, then measured temperature and activity within the rumen using the wireless bolus sensor. Drinking, feeding and mounting behavior, and measured vaginal temperature and levels of intravaginal mucus resistance were recorded. We found that cattle in estrus exhibited more acts of mounting (37.4 vs. 0 times/day), increased vaginal temperature (39.0℃ vs. 38.4℃), and decreased vaginal mucus resistance (136.3 Ω vs 197.4 Ω), compared with non-estral animals. Furthermore, increased levels of rumen activity were most significant in estrus cattle at the highest activity levels (p < 0.01). Overall, the estrus group exhibited increased rumen temperature (p = 0.01), compared with the non-estrus group. In conclusion, the results of this study not only provide basic physiological data related to estrus in improved Korean Native breeding cattle, but also suggest that monitoring of rumen temperature and activity might be used as an effective smart device for estrus detection.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.146-151
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• 2012

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common bacterial infections and is predominantly caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). UPEC strains generally possess several genes encoding virulent factors, which are mostly adhesins, toxins, bacteriocin and siderophores. E. coli is composed of four main phylogenetic group (A, B1, B2, D) and virulent extra-intestinal strains mainly belong to groups B2 and D. Prescription of ciprofloxacin, a kind of fluoroquinolone group antibiotics, is increasing now a days, but resistance to this drug is also increasing. A total of 188 strains of E. coli were collected. Thirteen strains were collected from healthy students in 2011 and 175 strains from patients with urinary tract infection in 2010. Virulence factor genes (papC, fimG/H, sfaD/E, hlyA, cnf1, and usp) were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods for phylogenetic group (A, B1, B2, D) detection. Ciprofloxacin susceptibility test was performed by disk diffusion method. The identified virulence factors (VFs), phylogenetic groups and ciprofloxacin resistance in 13 E. coli strains isolated from healthy students were papC (15.4%), fimG/H (76.9%), sfaD/E (30.8%), hlyA (23.1%), cnf1 (23.1%), usp (7.7%), phylogenetic group A (23%), B1 (8%), B2 (46%), D (23%) and ciprofloxacin resistance (7.7%), while those of in 175 E. coli strains isolated from patients with UTI were papC (41.1%), fimG/H (92.5%), sfaD/E (30.3%), hlyA (10.3%), cnf1 (30.3%), usp (27.4%), phylogenetic group A (9.1%), B1 (5.1%), B2 (60.6%), D (25.1%) and ciprofloxacin resistance (29.7%). In this study, 10 out of 13 E. coli strains (76.9%) from healthy students were found to possess more than one virulence factor associated with adhesion. In addition, one E. coli strain isolated from healthy students who had never been infected with UPEC showed ciprofloxacin resistance. According to these results between the virulence factors and phylogenetic groups it was closely associated, and UPEC strains isolated from patients showed high level of ciprofloxacin resistance.

• Journal of Science Criminal Investigation
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.210-217
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• 2017

In the forensic microbiology laboratories, microorganism analyses from food are requested. There have been several cases of Bacillus cereus isolated from the samples requested to the National Forensic Service. B. cereus is an important pathogenic bacterium which can cause food-borne outbreaks. Therefore, we isolated B. cereus from anchovy aekjeot recently requested for microbial examination and identified using MSId based on the 16S rDNA sequence and real-time PCR method. We also conducted PCR for detection of diarrheal toxin genes and an emetic toxin gene and found the presence of nheABC, bceT and entFM diarrheal toxin genes in the B. cereus isolate. There are several clinically important food-poisoning bacteria that should be noted during inspection. In particular, B. cereus can cause food poisoning even when cooked foods are ingested, because B. cereus forms endo-spore which confers strong environmental resistance and heat resistance to the bacteria, and the bacterial emetic toxin also has heat resistance. Here we highlight the importance to distinguish clinically important bacteria such as B. cereus from food specimens, and we expect this study will provide procedures for identification of B. cereus and detection of the bacterial toxin genes for future cases in the forensic microbiology laboratories.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.77-86
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• 2008

The disturbance zone and measured values are affected by the size of the penetrometer. The local value may be measured by the smaller penetrometer. An ultra small Micro-Cone penetrometer (5mm in outer diameter) is designed and manufactured to characterize soil properties with minimum disturbance during penetration tests. The tip resistance is measured by using stain gauges attached near the Micro-Cone. In addition, the friction sleeve is adopted to effectively remove the skin friction from the tip resistance. Design concern includes the installation of stain gauges, circuits, penetration systems, penetration rate, sampling rate, operating temperature, and calibration. Application tests show that the clay interface, and the soil layers consisting of clay and sand are clearly detected by the Micro-Cone. Furthermore, the cone tip resistances measured by the Micro-Cone and the miniature cone (16mm in outer diameter) are similar. Note the resolution is much higher in the Micro-Cone. This study shows that the Micro-Cone may effectively detect the soil interface with high resolution, and with minimum disturbance.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.51.3-51.3
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• 2010

Due to the recent public awareness of global warming and sustainable economic growth, there has been a growing interest in alternative clean energy sources. Hydrogen is considered as a clean fuel for the next generation. One of the technical challenges related to the use of hydrogen is safe monitoring of the hydrogen leak during separation, purification and transportation. For detecting various gases, chemiresistor-type gas sensors have been widely studied and used due to their well-established detection scheme and low cost. However, it is known that many of them have the limited sensitivity and slow response time, when used at low temperature conditions. In our work, a sensor based on Schottky barriers at the electrode/sensing material interface showed promising results that can be utilized for developing fast and highly sensitive gas sensors. Our hydrogen sensor was designed and fabricated based on indium oxide (In2O3)-doped tin oxide (SnO2) semiconductor nanoparticles with platinum (Pt) nanoclusters in combination with interdigitated electrodes. The sensor showed the sensitivity as high as $10^7%$ (Rair/Rgas) and the detection limit as low as 30 ppm. The sensor characteristics could be obtained via optimized materials synthesis route and sensor electrode design. Not only the contribution of electrical resistance from the film itself but also the interfacial effect was identified as an important factor that contribute significantly to the overall sensor characteristics. This promises the applicability of the developed sensor for monitoring hydrogen leak at room temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.36-43
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• 2016

Carbon fiber-reinforced silicon carbide (Cf-SiC) and SiC / SiC composites have high thermal conductivity, and excellent corrosion and wear resistance, a low coefficient for thermal expansion and are lightweight. This is why they are commonly used in parts of the aerospace industry to develop an aircraft thrust deflector, jet vane, combustion chamber, elevens, body flap, and a shingle. So, understanding how this state-of-the-art Cf-SiC affects both internal and external crack detection and determining issues during the manufacturing process of composite materials, should be evaluated according to valuation techniques in the external environment. In this paper, we apply a non-contact air ultrasonic technique of non-destructive testing techniques to perform a study on internal defect detection identification and assessment of carbon-fiber reinforced silicon carbide composites to perform basic research and applied research.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.32-39
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• 1994

Catalytic combustion type sensor was fabricated for alcohol detection, and its characteristics were tested. When the resistance of Pt coil for pellistor is 2.0 ohm, suggestible input power to bridge circuit was about 300 mW for methanol detection, and in the range from 350 mW to 400 mW for ethanol. Pellistors were prepared by means of impregnating Pt or Pd on the ${\gamma}$-alumina bead for sensing element, and transition metals such as $Co_{3}O_{4}$, $Fe_{2}O_{3}$ for compensating element.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.364-368
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• 2000

SiC fiber reinforced $Si_3N_4$ matrix composites combined with electrical conductive phases of carbon fiber and WC powder fabricated by hot pressing at 1773K. The ability to predict fracture in the ceramic matrix composites was evaluated by measuring simultaneous load-deflection and electrical resistanc difference-deflection curves in four point bending tests. The changes in electrical resistance differences closely corresponded to the fracture behavior of the composites. Different electrical conductive phases are suited to predicting different stages and rates of fracture. These obsevations how that it is possible to perform "in situ" fracture detection in ceramic composites.