• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.159-162
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• 2006

This study examined the relationship between the quantity of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus spp. related to dental caries and the degree of acidity in saliva. A total of 240 saliva samples were taken from 80 subjects at the faculty of dentistry in Skopje, Macedonia. The saliva samples were taken by stimulating saliva production stimulation with paraffin chewing. However, no stimulation was applied when obtaining the samples used for measuring the pH. The data showed that in the caries group, S. mutans in 1 ml of saliva formed colonies with confluent growth (CFU > $10^6$ and $10^4-10^5$) in 100% of samples, whereas the Lactobacillus spp. formed colonies with confluent growth in 78.3%. In contrast, no colonies with confluent growth (CFU > $10^6$ and $10^5$) were found in the control group (with healthy intact teeth). In the caries group, the pH of the saliva was slightly acidic (pH = 5.90 - 6.50) and the buffering capacity was very low (below 0.7 ml of saliva per min). On the other hand, the pH of the saliva in the control group was neutral (pH 7.01 - 7.7) and the buffering capacity was high (over 1 ml of saliva per min). The increased number of S. mutans and Lactobacillus spp. in 1 ml of saliva (above $10^5$ CFU or more) from the CRT (Caries Risk Test, Vivadent, Liechtenstein) bacteria test can indicate an increased caries risk as well as slightly higher acidity of the saliva. Overall, these results reveal that the caries risk can be predicted by simply measuring the pH and buffering capacity of saliva, and can be used to monitor the effect of dental hygiene practices with the aim of preventing dental caries.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2008

Background: Surveillance of TB drug resistance (DR) is essential for providing information on the magnitude and trends in resistance, for developing treatment guidelines and for monitoring the effect of interventions. Up to now national surveys of drug resistance of M. tuberculosis have been conducted four times since 1994 among patients registered at health centers. The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of primary drug resistance among new cases identified in private sector, and to compare it with the previous national drug resistance surveys. Methods: The study collected results of drug susceptibility testing (DST) performed at the Korean Institute of Tuberculosis by the request of private sector from January 2003 to December 2005, and then finally selected new cases for the analysis from the database of Korean TB Surveillance (KTBS) by matching patients' name and social identification numbers. Results: Of the 5,132 new patients included in the study, 689 (13.4%) patients were found to have drug resistance at least one drug, 530 patients (10.3%) were isoniazid resistant, 195 patients (3.8%) were multi-drug resistant (MDR), and 21 patients (0.4%) were extensively drug resistant (XDR). The rate of drug resistance tended to decrease annually but it was not statistically significant. When compared with previous national DR surveys in 2003 and in 2004 respectively, they were not significantly different. Conclusion: The prevalence of DR among new cases managed in the private sector did not show significant difference from that of new patients registered in the public sector in the same year.

• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.33-39
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• 2000

Purpose: Our study was designed to investigate the association of MHC Class II (DR, DQ) allele with IgA nephropathy and its significance as a prognostic factor for progression to ESRD Material and Methods: 69 children with IgA nephropathy with normal renal function(serum creatinine $\leq$ 1.5mg/dL) was classified as group A and 70 patients who received renal transplantation due to IgA nephropathy were selected as group B. The HLA-DQB1 and HLA-DRB1 alleles were studied by polymerase chain reaction using sequence specific primers. We have compared the difference in alleles between these two groups and with normal control and also examined any possible effect of the MHC class II genes on the histopathological severity and prognosis of IgAN. Results: Mean age was $8.8{\pm}2.9$ years in group A and $35.0{\pm}15.5$ years in group B. Male to female ratio was 2.8:1 in group A and 2.5:1 in group B. There was a significantly higher frequency of HLA-$DQB1^*03\;and\;DQB1^*05$ in Group B. The frequency of HLA-$DQB1^*0302\;and\;^*05031$ allele had increasing tendency in Group B(P<0.05). HLA-$DRB1^*03\;and\;^*05$ were more common in Group B(P<0.05). HLA-$DRB1^*04$ allele was the most common DR alleles in both group, but there was no statistical significance. There were no significant correlation with MHC class 13 genes on the hjstopathological severity in Group A. Conclusion: In conclusion, $HLA-DQB1^*0302\;and\;HLA-DQB1^*05031 $ allele seemed to be more common in transplanted patients compared to group with normal renal function suggesting that this allele is associated with poor prognosis in IgAN. However larger studies and follow up are required to confirm this due to uncharacterized heterogeneity in etiopathogenesis of IgA nephropathy and possibly one or more than one gene may exert influence in determining susceptibility to the diseases.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Poultry Science Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.64-84
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• 2002

These studies were conducted to evaluate the Properties of lactic acid Producing bacteria(LAB), isolated from broiler and laying hens cecum and select the optimum strains to improve the performance, environment of poultry house, immunity, and intestinal microflora of broiler and laying hens. In experiment I , 23 LAB strains were isolated from broiler and laying hens cecum as a colony form. Six strains were selected by acid tolerance, bile salt tolerance, viability, enzyme release, antagonism, and antibiotics susceptibility. In Experiment II, selected LABs from Ex. 1 were conducted to investigate the effects of feeding various Lactobacillus on performance, nutrients digestibility, intestinal microflora, villi development and observation of epithelium surface, blood chemicals and fecal noxious gas of broiler chicks. One thousand eighty one day old broiler chicks were fed into Lactobacillus crispatus avibrol(LCB), Lactobacillus reuteri avibro2(LRB), Lactobacillus crispatus avihen1(LCH), and Lactobacillus vaginalis avihen2(LVH) at the level of 10$^4$ and 10$\^$7/cfu/g diet. Weight gam of chicks fed Lactobacillus tended to increase from the first week and was higher from 50 to 100g in Lactobacillus treatments than control. Feed intake and feed conversion were not statistically different of all treatments. Dry Matter digestibility of Lactobacillus treatments was prone to improve compared to that of control, but was not significantly different. Protein and Ca digestibility were also tended to improve in Lactobacillus treatments relative that of control. Lactobacillus treatments showed improved tendency in crude ash and fat compared to those of control, whereas phosphorus digestibility was not consistency. Nutrients digestibilities of bird fed LCH were superior to those of other treatments, It showed significantly higher in Ca and P digestibility than control(P〈0.05). Total Lactobacillus spp. of birds fed various Lactobacillus was significantly higher in illeum for five weeks(P〈0.05), but was not different at cecum. Yeast was thought to be not completely attached to intestinal lumen for one week. However, total number of yeast was significantly increased in cecum and illeum of three weeks old chicks (P〈0.05). The number of anaerobes exhibited to tendency the increase in Lactobacillus treatments from one week old of age at both ileum and cecum.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.146-165
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• 1973

Crop damages caused by sulfur dioxide poisoning were studied with respect to physiology of lesion, yield loss and prevention measures. The results are summarized as follows; 1. On the physiology of injury: The sulfur dioxide gas did no: affect the pH and $E_h$ values of the tested leaf juice of plants. Peroxidase activity was inhibited just after sulfur dioxide treatment but gradually recovered to normal after 10 hours. Methanolic chlorophyll solution was instantaneously and irreversibly bleached by the addition of sulfur dioxide gas with no evidence of pheophytin formation. It seems that chlorophyll forms colourless addition product or is reduced to colourless form with either sulfur dioxide gas or sulfurous acid. Chlorophyll in the chloroplast was also bleached by the sulfur dioxide treatment, as in the case of methanolic solution of chlorophyll, except that the rate of bleaching was rather slow, requiring 1-2 hours. It appears that the most inflicting cause of sulfur dioxide gas to plants may be the destruction of chlorophyll by the poisoning gas. 2. On the effects to crop yield: The crop yield losses were proportional to the concentration of inflicting sulfur dioxide gas. The order of tolerence of the crops to the sulfur dioxide gas was as follows - chinese cabbage being the most susceptible; wheat, paddy rice, barley, soybean, welsh onion, radish and chinese cabbage. The crucifer crops were generally found more susceptible than other crops studied. With respect to the growing stages of crops exposed to sulfur dioxide gas, it was found that the flowering stage was the most susceptible fellowed by panicle forming, milky and tillering in the decreasing order of susceptibility. 3. On the preventive measures of yield losses: Soil applications of potassium, wollastonite, lime or spray of lime water were effective to prevent yield losses from sulfur dioxide fumigation of paddy rice, barley, and soybeans. The most responsive treatment was lime water spray for all crops tested. In case of sulfur dioxide fumigated paddy rice, the lime water spray also increased carbon assimilation.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.295-303
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• 2003

Backgroung : The incidence of penicillin-resistant streptococcus pneumoniae(PRSP) accounts for almost 70% of all pneumococcal pneumonia cases in Korea. It is still unclear as to whether the efficacy of penicillin or equally active beta-lactam agents is compromised in PRSP pneumonia. This study investigated the prevalence of PRSP in community-acquired pneumonia and its clinical course. Methods : A total of 42 patients with community-acquired pneumococcal pneumonia were evaluated from July 1999 to May 2001. The cultured strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae were divided into susceptible, intermediately resistant, and resistant strains by an E-test, and the effect of the clinical course was investigated. Results : From a total of 42 patients, 22 (52.4%) patients had an intermediate resistance (MIC $0.1-1{\mu}g/m{\ell}$) and six (14.3%) showed a high resistance ($MIC{\geq}2.0{\mu}g/m{\ell}$) with current penicillin susceptibility categories. However, according to the classification of the DRSPTWG (Drug Resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae Therapeutic Working Group), there were 11 cases (26.2%) of intermediate resistance and no case of high resistance. Under empirical antimicrobial treatment, there was no difference in the clinical outcome between the penicillin susceptible and resistant group. Conclusion : The clinical outcome of PRSP pneumonia with empirical therapy was acceptable. These results suggest that the current MIC breakpoint for penicillin resistance in Streptococcus pneumoniae has been set at a very low level and penicillin resistance according to the NCCLS classification does not significantly influence the outcome of the empirical treatment for pneumococcal pneumonia.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.252-252
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• 2017

Nowadays water shortage is becoming one of the biggest problems in the Korea. Many different methods are developed for conservation of water. Soil water management has become the most indispensable factor for augmenting the crop productivity especially on soybean (Glycine max L.) because of their high susceptibility to both water stress and water logging at various growth stages. The farmers have been using irrigation techniques through manual control which farmers irrigate lands at regular intervals. Automatic irrigation systems are convenient, especially for those who need to travel. If automatic irrigation systems are installed and programmed properly, they can even save you money and help in water conservation. Automatic irrigation systems can be programmed to provide automatic irrigation to the plants which helps in saving money and water and to discharge more precise amounts of water in a targeted area, which promotes water conservation. The objective of this study was to determine the possible effect of automatic irrigation systems based on soil moisture on soybean growth. This experiment was conducted on an upland field with sandy loam soils in Department of Southern Area Crop, NICS, RDA. The study had three different irrigation methods; sprinkle irrigation (SI), surface drip irrigation (SDI) and fountain irrigation (FI). SI was installed at spacing of $7{\times}7m$ and $1.8m^3/hr$ as square for per irrigation plot, a lateral pipe of SDI was laid down to 1.2 m row spacing with $2.3L\;h^{-1}$ discharge rate, the distance between laterals was 20 cm spacing between drippers and FI was laid down in 3m interval as square for per irrigation plot. Soybean (Daewon) cultivar was sown in the June $20^{th}$, 2016, planted in 2 rows of apart in 1.2 m wide rows and distance between hills was 20 cm. All agronomic practices were done as the recommended cultivation. This automatic irrigation system had valves to turn irrigation on/off easily by automated controller, solenoids and moisture sensor which were set the reference level as available soil moisture levels of 30% at 10cm depth. The efficiency of applied irrigation was obtained by dividing the total water stored in the effective root zone to the applied irrigation water. Results showed that seasonal applied irrigation water amounts were $60.4ton\;10a^{-1}$ (SI), $47.3ton\;10a^{-1}$ (SDI) and $92.6 ton\;10a^{-1}$ (FI), respectively. The most significant advantage of SDI system was that water was supplied near the root zone of plants drip by drip. This system saved a large quantity of water by 27.5% and 95.6% compared to SI, FI system. The average soybean yield was significantly affected by different irrigation methods. The soybean yield by different irrigation methods were $309.7kg\;10a^{-1}$ from SDI $282.2kg\;10a^{-1}$ from SI, $289.4kg\;10a^{-1}$ from FI, and $206.3kg\;10a^{-1}$ from control, respectively. SDI resulted in increase of soybean yield by 50.1%, 7.0% 9.8% compared to non-irrigation (control), FI and SI, respectively. Therefore, the automatic irrigation system supplied water only when the soil moisture in the soil went below the reference. Due to the direct transfer of water to the roots water conservation took place and also helped to maintain the moisture to soil ratio at the root zone constant. Thus the system is efficient and compatible to changing environment. The automatic irrigation system provides with several benefits and can operate with less manpower. In conclusion, improving automatic irrigation system can contribute greatly to reducing production costs of crops and making the industry more competitive and sustainable.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.278-288
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• 2007

Shrimp culture in Korea had been rapidly developed during 1990's and the production of farmed shrimp reached 3,268 mt from 2,605 ha in 2001. However the shrimp production decreased to 2,368 mt in 2004 because of the mass mortality due to outbreak of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). WSSV which is one of the most serious threats associated with cultured shrimp around the world has given the economic damages to shrimp culture industry every year since it was found from the shrimp ponds in the west coast of the South Korea in 1993. Various polyculture technologies of shrimp with shellfish, finfish or seaweeds have been implemented to reduce economic damages by mass mortalities of shrimp. Among them, the polyculture of shrimp with carnivorous fish can suppress or delay the viral outbreak of shrimp ponds because the fish may selectively eat the moribund shrimps infected by virus. To determine the selective predatory effect of river puffer Takifugu obscures on WSSV infected shrimp, postlarvae of Litopenaeus vannamei and Fenneropenaeus chinensis. One-year old river puffers were stocked to four earthen ponds of $1,616-1,848\;m^2$ in surface area as followings: polyculture LvP, L. vannamei ($43.4/m^2$)+puffer ($0.22/m^2$); control Lv, L. vannamei ($46.9/m^2$); polyculture FcP, F. chinensis ($30.3/m^2$)+puffer ($0.25/m^2$); control Fc, F. chinensis ($24.6/m^2$). Ponds of control Fc and polyculture FcP had mass mortalities by WSSV outbreak on the $51^{st}$ and $57^{th}$ days of culture respectively. The shrimps of polyculture LvP and control Lv were harvested on the $95^{th}\;day$. Shrimp survival rates of polyculture LvP and control Lv were 32.4% and 18.2% respectively and shrimp productivity of polyculture LvP was 69.2% higher than that of control Lv. Concentration of nutrients (TAN, $NO_2-N$, $NO_3-N$) was maintained within optimal ranges for shrimp growth although that of polyculture ponds showed at least two times higher than that of control ponds. The results suggest that polyculture of L. vannamei with river puffer is higher than monoculture in survival rate and productivity. In addition, F. chinensis should be carefully cultured because this species shows much higher susceptibility to WSSV than L. vannamei.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 2009

Purpose : In February 2007, an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) skin and soft tissue infections occurred in two newborns in the neonatal unit of Sahmyook Seoul Hospital. We performed this study to investigate the characteristics of MRSA nasal carriage among neonatal unit staffs and the effective infection control measures. Methods : Nasal swab specimens were obtained from the neonatal unit staff for the presence of MRSA. MRSA-colonized staffs were offered decolonization therapy with oral trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole or 2% mupirocin ointment. Every 2-4months after decolonizaton, repeat nasal swab specimens were obtained. Also, samples from the neonatal unit environment and room air were collected. Results : Successful decolonization was achieved in 92% of the cases in 2 weeks after decolonization therapy, but most of the staffs were recolonized after several months. The nature of antibiotic susceptibility was changed from multi-drugsusceptible to multi-drug-resistant. The most frequently contaminated objects were dressing carts, computer keyboards, bassinets and washbowls. In environmental cultures using the settle microbe count method, the colony counts were decreased significantly at the last study period compared with the first study period in the neonatal room, breastfeeding room, service room, and dressing room (P <0.05). Conclusion : Effective control of sustained MRSA transmission within an institution may require prompt identification, treatment, and monitoring of colonized and/or infected staffs. However, nasal decolonization therapy may induce multi-drugresistant MRSA infection and had no effect on decreasing the MRSA nasal carriage rate in our study. Other factors might be more important, such as improving staff education, increasing hand hygiene practices, and environmental sterilization for controlling MRSA infections.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.325-332
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• 2010

The bactericidal efficacy of three common sanitizers (100 or 200 ppm of sodium hypochlorite, 100 or 200 ppm of n-alkyl($C_{12}-C_{18}$)benzyldimethyl ehloride, and 50 or 100 ppm of peroxyacetie acid) against Escherichia coli ATCC 10536 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 was studied using the suspension test method at various exposure temperatures (4~$40^{\circ}C$) and times(1~60min) under both dirty and clean conditions, respectively. During the suspension tests, sodium hypochlorite (200 ppm) showed higher bactericidal activity than the other sanitizers under clean conditions, with 5 log reductions against E. coli as well as S. aureus in the first 1 min of treatments at $4^{\circ}C$, However, the efficacy of sodium hypochlorite decreased markedly under dirty conditions due to its susceptibility to interfering substances. The efficacy of the n-alkyl($C_{12}-C_{18}$)benzyldimethyl chloride increased considerable as the exposure temperature and time increased. The bactericidal efficacy of the n-alkyl($C_{12}-C_{18}$)benzyldimethyl chloride might be less effective on low temperature, however, the longer time the sanitizer is in contact, the more effective the sanitization effect. Treatment with peroxyacetic acid (100 ppm) showed at least 5 log reduction against E. coli and S. aureus for 5 min at $4^{\circ}C$ under both clean and dirty conditions. The efficacy of the peroxyacetic acid was not much altered by interfering substances and aflected by changes in temperature or time.