• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2007

This study aimed to provide basic information on dental hygienists' practicing the prevention of infections by figuring out their actual conditions in dental clinics. The subjects of the study were the dental hygienists who participated in the continuing medical education of Incheon & Gyeonggi-do association and Seoul city association in October and November 2005 and the self-administered surveys were used for the prevention of infections. The results were as below. 1. In terms of education experiences of infection prevention, those who answered "there were" were 72 persons (42.9%) and those who followed the educational route for infection prevention were "through the in-house education from the hospital" and they were 42 persons (58%), which were highest. 2. In terms of the injury experiences, those who answered "there were" were 147 persons (87.5%) and the number of annual injury out of 147 persons with injury experiences was 7.7 time. For the tools that were damaged, 125 persons (75%) damaged the "explorer," which was highest. 3. For the experiences of being infected with contagious diseases, those who answered "there were" were 6 persons (3.6%) and there were four persons for "hepatitis B", one person for "rubella" and one person for "TB." 4. The questions with high practice scores were as in the following: "2. I wash my hands after conducting medical examinations (1.86 points)," "7. I always close the lid of a shot of Novocain after doing local anesthesia (1.86 points)" and "20. I separate and collect the wastes and give them to those who treat accumulated materials (1.85 points)". Meanwhile, the questions with low practice scores were as below: "16. I change my medical gowns (doctor wears) once a day (0.24 point)" and "I wash my medical gowns every time after examining patients with contagious diseases (0.52 points)." 5. The question with high knowledge was as below: "1. The contagion during the dental treatment is determined by source of infection, infection methods, infection routes and the host that is prone to infection (0.95 point)" and the question with the lowest knowledge was "5. HBV(hepatitis B) is destroyed after adding 95oC of heat for more than 5 minutes (0.27 points)." 6. The question with the highest organization-related factors was "I am always ready to use a mask, gloves, etc. if necessary" (0.89 points)" and the question with the lowest score was "There is a guideline that I can refer when I am exposed to dangerous situations related to the contagion in my workplace (0.33 point)." 7. In terms of the equipment conditions of protectors in medical environments, 168 persons for (disposable) mask (100%), 167 persons for disposable gloves (Latex) (99.4%), which meant that most of them were equipped with them. On the contrary, 108 persons (64.3%) are equipped with the protectors for frontal faces, which is the lowest and 165 persons (98.2%) said that they had autoclave in their disinfecting and sterilizing devices.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.151-156
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• 2007

Purpose : Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major etiologic agent for pneumonia, meningitis, otitis media, and sepsis among young children. Multi-drug resistant strains have raised great concern worldwide, thus the importance of prevention with vaccines has been emphasized. However, vaccines may force the appearance of pneumococcal infections by nonvaccine serotypes. Thus, distribution of pneumococcal serotypes should be monitored to estimate vaccine efficacy. We used a new and efficient multibead assay in determining pnemococcal serotypes. Methods : From January to February 2005, 643 children were recruited from ten day care centers to isolate pneumococci from their oropharynx. Pneumococcal serotyping was performed on 62 pneumococcal isolates from 60 children by multibead assay. This immunoassay required two sets of latex particles coated with pneumococcal polysaccharides and serotype-specific antibodies. Twenty four newly developed monoclonal antibodies specific for common serotypes and a pool of polyclonal rabbit sera for some of the less common serotypes were used. Results : The most prevalent pneumococcal serotypes were serotype 6A, 19A, 19F, 23F, and 11A/D/F which accounted more than 50 precent of all the 62 pneumococcal isolates. We found that multibead assay can be performed very rapidly and objectively. Conclusion : This multibead immunoassay was very useful in serotyping clinical isolates of S. pneumoniae because it was simple, reliable and fast.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.66
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• pp.416-423
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• 2023

Figs has known to have antioxidant, whitening, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial effects in their leaves, roots, stems, latex, and fruits. In order to develop cosmetic materials based on natural products, we have studied on the skin activity of the ficin in latex as well as the whitening function of the fruit extract with 70% ethanol, and used it as a raw material for released cosmetic product. However, there is little research on the demand for the development of new eutectic solvent extraction methods and its ability to control skin inflammation and psoriasis regulation. Thus, in this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of fig fruit extracts and fractions using eutectic solvent extraction for skin inflammation control and psoriasis. First, fig fruits were extracted under optimal eutectic solvent conditions and fractionated with n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and butanol. First, the antioxidant activity and inhibition of nitric oxide (NO) production were confirmed in mouse macrophage RAW264.7 cells. In addition, as a result of observing the mRNA expression through RT-PCR, pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL1α, and IL-1β were suppressed significantly in the hexane, dichloromethane, and ethyl acetate fractions. In addition, it was confirmed in TNF-α stimulated HaCaT keratinocyte model. Finally, chemokine CC motif ligand 20 (CCL20), marker gene of human psoriasis skin disease, was significantly suppressed in the hexane, dichloromethane, and ethyl acetate fractions. These results suggested its anti-inflammatory and skin soothing effect and the possibility of development as an excellent skin soothing natural cosmetic material in the future through future clinical trials.