• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1547-1554
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• 2015

The potential of microalgae biofuel has not been realized because of the low productivity and high costs associated with the current cultivation systems. In this study, a new low-cost and transparent attachment material was tested for cultivation of a filamentous algal strain, Stigeoclonium sp., isolated from wastewater. Initially, the different materials tested for Stigeoclonium cultivation in untreated wastewater were nylon mesh, polyethylene mesh, polypropylene bundle (PB), polycarbonate plate, and viscose rayon. Among the materials tested, PB led to a firm attachment, high biomass (53.22 g/m², dry cell weight), and total lipid yield (5.8 g/m²) with no perceivable change in FAME profile. The Stigeoclonium-dominated biofilm consisted of bacteria and extracellular polysaccharide, which helped in biofilm formation and for effective wastewater treatment (viz., removal efficiency of total nitrogen and total phosphorus corresponded to ~38% and ~90%, respectively). PB also demonstrated high yields under multilayered cultivation in a single reactor treating wastewater. Hence, this system has several advantages over traditional suspended and attached systems, with possibility of increasing areal productivity three times using Stigeoclonium sp. Therefore, multilayered attached growth algal cultivation systems seem to be the future cultivation model for large-scale biodiesel production and wastewater treatment.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.636-641
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• 2007

A pilot-scale biofilm nitiritation reactor was operated with the reject water from a large wastewater treatment plant. The effects of various operating parameters including pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, solids and organic concentrations were examined. A stable nitritation was achieved at operating pH range of 7.3 to 8.8 with an alkalinity addition. Higher operating temperature of $35{\pm}0.7^{\circ}C$ achieved more stable nitritation compared to $30{\pm}0.2^{\circ}C$. It has been noticed that nitrite accumulation maintained with DO, solids and organic concentrations range of 0.8 to 3.9 mg/L, 3,400 to 11,000 mg/L, and 86 to 572 mg/L, respectively. It seems that the accumulation of nitrite was caused by both the inhibition of $NO_2{^-}$ oxidizers due to free ammonia and the maintenance of the high operating temperature of $35^{\circ}C$ which promote to accumulate the $NH_4{^+}$ oxidizers in the reactor. According to microbial community analysis of fluorescence in situ hybridization and INT-Dehydrogenase measurements, more nitrifiers were presented in attached form compared to suspended growth.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.97-105
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• 2011

In rivers and streams, biofilms are thin layers of greenish-brown slime attached to rocks, plants, and other surfaces. Biofilms play key roles in primary production and cycling of nutrients, water quality remediation, suspended sediment removal, and energy flow to higher trophic levels. In the present study, we developed a two-dimensional cellular automata model to simulate mixed biofilms of toxin-sensitive and toxin-producing species in hydrodynamic flow. The flow was generated by a stochastic process for uniform flow and by using the Navier-Stokes equation for non-uniform flow. Minimized local rules governing reproduction and mortality of the species were executed in the self-organizing processes to elucidate interactions between toxin-producing and toxin-sensitive species in competition over nutrients. We briefly discuss the morphology of the simulated biofilm under different flow conditions.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.223-230
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• 2015

Bacterial infection is one of the most common and universal cause of disease spreading associated with medical and surgical environment. Antimicrobial function of plasticized polyvinyl chloride (PVC) will be useful for making hygienic environments. Here, we synthesized the PVC composite by the addition of inorganic bacteriocide containing silver, zinc and zeolite. And we investigated the growth inhibition rate for Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae which were analyzed in the presence of PVC composite with different doses of inorganic bacteriocide (1~15 wt%). Bacterial proliferation was significantly inhibited by 3 wt% of inorganic bacteriocide containing PVC composite. And we found the inhibition of bacterial biofilm formation by 5 wt% of inorganic bacteriocide containing PVC composite by the observation of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Our data suggested that the antimicrobial effect of inorganic bacteriocide was caused by disturbing the bacterial biofilm formation.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.193-204
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• 2019

Purpose: The reaction of cells to a titanium implant depends on the surface characteristics of the implant which are affected by decontamination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cytocompatibility of titanium disks treated with various decontamination methods, using salivary bacterial contamination with dental pellicle formation as an in vitro model. Methods: Sand-blasted and acid-etched (SA) titanium disks were used. Three control groups (pristine SA disks [SA group]; salivary pellicle-coated SA disks [pellicle group]; and biofilm-coated, untreated SA disks [NT group]) were not subjected to any decontamination treatments. Decontamination of the biofilm-coated disks was performed by 14 methods, including ultrasonic instruments, rotating instruments, an air-powder abrasive system, a laser, and chemical agents. MG63 cells were cultured in the presence of the treated disks. Cell proliferation assays were performed on days 2 and 5 of cell culture, and cell morphology was analyzed by immunofluorescence and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) assay was performed on day 5 of culture. Results: The cell proliferation assay revealed that all decontaminated disks, except for the 2 groups treated using a plastic tip, showed significantly less cell proliferation than the SA group. The immunofluorescence and SEM analyses revealed that most groups showed comparable cell density, with the exception of the NT group, in which the cell density was lower and bacterial residue was observed. Furthermore, the cells grown with tetracycline-treated titanium disks showed significantly lower VEGF production than those in the SA group. Conclusions: None of the decontamination methods resulted in cytocompatibility similar to that of pristine SA titanium. However, many methods caused improvement in the biocompatibility of the titanium disks in comparison with the biofilm-coated, untreated titanium disks. This suggests that decontamination is indispensable for the treatment of peri-implantitis, even if the original biocompatibility cannot be restored.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.73-76
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• 2001

We have simulated the effect of fracture characteristics on reduction of effective permeability of the fractured rocks due to in-situ bacteria growth. A nutrient is injected continuously for growth of in-situ bacteria. We used a power law for fracture length distribution and a fBm for fracture aperture spatial distribution. The results show that in-situ bacteria growth reduces the Permeability hyperbolically, but the porosity of backbone fracture does not change significantly. It shows that reduction of the permeability proceeds at faster speed for smaller value of length exponent(a) and for larger value of Hurst exponent(H). The fracture length distribution has stronger effect on speed of reduction than the aperture spatial distribution. The time needed to reduce permeability is inversely proportional to the hydraulic gradient.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.1230-1237
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• 2009

The selective plugging strategy of Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR) involves the use of microbes that grow and produce exopolymeric substances, which block the high permeability zones of an oil reservoir, thus allowing the water to flow through the low permeability zones leading to increase in oil recovery. Bacillus licheniformis TT33, a hot water spring isolate, is facultatively anaerobic, halotolerant, and thermotolerant. It produces EPS as well as biosurfactant and has a biofilm-forming ability. The viscosity of its cell-free supernatant is $120\;mPa{\cdot}s$ at $28^{\circ}C$. Its purified EPS contained 26% carbohydrate and 3% protein. Its biosurfactant reduced the surface tension of water from 72 to 34 mN/m. This strain gave $27.7{\pm}3.5%$ oil recovery in a sand pack column. Environmental scanning electron microscopy analysis showed bacterial growth and biofilm formation in the sand pack. Biochemical tests and Amplified Ribosomal DNA Restriction Analysis confirmed that the oil recovery obtained in the sand pack column was due to Bacillus licheniformis TT33.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.353-365
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• 2000

After their first appearance on Earth, bacteria have exerted significant influence on geochemical behavior of elements. Numerous evidence of their control on geochemistry through geologic history has been observed in a variety of natural environments. They have mediated weathering rate, formation of secondary minerals, redox transformation of metals and metalloids, and thus global cycling of elements. Such ability of bacteria receives so considerable attention from microbiologists, mineralogists, geologists, soil scientists, limnologists, oceanographers, and atmospheric scientists as well as geochemists that a new and interdisciplinary field of research called 'geomicrobiology' is currently expanding. Some recent subjects of geomicrobiology which are studied extensively are as follows: 1) Functional groups distributed on bacterial cell walls adsorb dissolved cations onto cell surfaces by electrostatic surface complexation, which is followed by hydrous mineral formation. 2) Dissimilatory metal reducing bacteria conserve energy to support growth by oxidation of organic matter coupled to reduction of some oxidized metals and/or metalloids. They can be effectively used in remediating environments contaminated with U, As, Se, and Cr. 3) Bacteria increase the rate of mineral dissolution by excreting proton and ligands such as organic acids into aqueous system. 4) Thorough investigation on the effects of biofilm on geochemical processes is needed, because most bacteria are adsorbed on solid substrates and form biofilms in natural settings.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.210-215
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• 2017

Produced water is the largest wastestream of oil and gas exploration. It consists of various organic and inorganic compounds that hinder its beneficial use. This study compared the treatment of produced water in a batch suspended and biofilm activated sludge process. The biofilm carrier material was made from Gardenia Carinata shell. COD, $NH_4{^+}-N$ and $NO_3-N$ removal was monitored in both the suspended (control) and floating carrier bioreactors. The results show a rapid reduction of produced water constituents in the floating carrier bioreactor. COD, $NH_4{^+}-N$ and $NO_3-N$ removal was in the range of 99%, 98% and 97% for the floating carrier bioreactor whereas it was 88%, 84% and 83% for the control bioreactor. The rapid reduction of COD, $NH_4{^+}-N$ and $NO_3-N$ clearly indicate that the floating carrier materials served as an attached growth medium for microorganisms, improved the breakdown of produced water constituents and reduced inhibition of microbial metabolic activities.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.275-281
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• 2014

Aim of this study was to investigate biofilms attached in pipeline of water reuse from the MBR system treating sewage without chlorination in correlation to the outflow water quality. Two general pipe materials: polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene (PE) were employed in the experiment. The peak growths were found at week 4 in both pipes. The maximum biofilms in PE pipe was $33mgVSS/cm^2$ with the growth rate of $4.75mgVSS/cm^2-d$ which was significant higher than that of PVC pipe. Biofilms examined by PCR-DGGE technique revealed five bacterial species in PE biofilms namely Sinorhizobium medicae WSM419, Sinorhizobium fredii NGR234, Geobacter sp. M18, Parachlamydia acanthamoebae UV-7, and Mycobacterium chubuense NBB4. The VSS concentrations in outflow had directly correlated to the biofilm attachment and detachment. High COD concentrations of outflow appeared during biofilm detaching phase. In summary, water quality of reuse water corresponded to the biofilms attachment and detachment in the pipeline.