• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2001

Amphotericin B (AmB) is a drug of choice for the treatment of systemic fungal diseases, but its use is considerably limited due to a high incidence of toxicity, particularly nephrotoxicity. It has been demonstrated that the toxicity of AmB is caused by self-aggregated species of the drug and that unaggregated (monomeric) drug is nontoxic but still expresses antifungal activity. Poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) is a water-soluble polymer, which may impact the aggregation state of AmB. We have studied the aggregation state of AmB as a function of PEO molecular weight and concentration. At 3,000 and 8,000 g/mole, there was minimal or no change of critical aggregation concentration (CAC) of AmB regardless of the concentration of polymer. By contrast at 20,000 g/mole, the CAC of AmB strikingly increased to 24.3 and $37.5\;{\mu}M$ at 5.0% and 10 % w/v of polymer, respectively. The critical overlap concentration (COC) of PEO 20,000 g/mole was 5.5%. It appears that an interaction between monomeric AmB and polymer coil increases above the COC, competing with self-aggregation of the drug. Accordingly, the degree of aggregation of AmB stayed low and the toxicity became less. There was no such effect at 3,000 and 8,000 g/mole of PEO, owing perhaps to small dimensions in comparison to AmB. Based upon these findings, less toxic AmB formulation may be developed by a pharmaceutical technique such as solid dispersion system containing both AmB and PEO 20,000 g/mole.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.290-294
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• 2023

Among various types of harmful gases, hydrogen sulfide is a strong toxic gas that is mainly generated during spillage and wastewater treatment at industrial sites. Hydrogen sulfide can irritate the conjunctiva even at low concentrations of less than 10 ppm, cause coughing, paralysis of smell and respiratory failure at a concentration of 100 ppm, and coma and permanent brain loss at concentrations above 1000 ppm. Therefore, rapid detection of hydrogen sulfide among harmful gases is extremely important for our safety, health, and comfortable living environment. Most hydrogen sulfide gas sensors that have been reported are electrical resistive metal oxide-based semiconductor gas sensors that are easy to manufacture and mass-produce and have the advantage of high sensitivity; however, they have low gas selectivity. In contrast, the electrochemical sensor measures the concentration of hydrogen sulfide using an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen sulfide, an electrode, and an electrolyte. Electrochemical sensors have various advantages, including sensitivity, selectivity, fast response time, and the ability to measure room temperature. However, most electrochemical hydrogen sulfide gas sensors depend on imports. Although domestic technologies and products exist, more research is required on their long-term stability and reliability. Therefore, this study includes the processes from electrode material synthesis to sensor fabrication and characteristic evaluation, and introduces the sensor structure design and material selection to improve the sensitivity and selectivity of the sensor. A sensor case was fabricated using a 3D printer, and an Ag reference electrode, and a Pt counter electrode were deposited and applied to a Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) filter using PVD. The working electrode was also deposited on a PTFE filter using vacuum filtration, and an electrochemical hydrogen sulfide gas sensor capable of measuring concentrations as low as 0.6 ppm was developed.

• Mycobiology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.131-136
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• 2005

Infection structures were observed at the penetration sites on the leaves of cucumber plants inoculated with Colletotrichum orbiculare using a fluorescence microscope. The cucumber plants were previously drenched with suspension of bacterial strains Pseudomonas putida or Micrococcus luteus. The plants pre-inoculated with both bacterial strains were resistant against anthracnose after inoculation with C. orbiculare. To investigate the resistance mechanism by both bacterial strains, the surface of infected leaves was observed at the different time after challenge inoculation. At 3 days after inoculation there were no differences in the germination and appressorium formation of conidia of C. orbiculare as well as in the callose formation of the plants between both bacteria pre-inoculated and non-treated. At 5 days, the germination and appressorium formation of the fungal conidia were, however, significantly decreased on the leaves of plants pre-inoculated with M. luteus at the concentration with $1.0{\times}10^7\;cfu/ml$. Furthermore, callose formation of plants cells at the penetration sites was apparently increased. In contrast, there were no defense reactions of the plants at the concentration with $1.0{\times}10^6\;cfu/ml$ of M. luteus. Similarly, inoculation P. putida caused no plant resistance at the low concentration, whereas increase of callose formation was observed at the higher concentration. The results of this study suggest that the resistant mechanisms might be differently expressed by the concentration of pre-treatment with bacterial suspension.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1049-1055
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• 2004

Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) is referred to as a three body tribological system, because it includes two solids in relative motion and the CMP slurry. On the assumption that the abrasives between the pad and the wafer could be a major reason not only for the friction force but also for material removal during polishing, the friction force generated during CMP process was investigated with the change of abrasive size and concentration of CMP slurry. The threshold point of average coefficient of friction (COF) with increase in abrasives concentration during interlayer dielectric (ILD) CMP was found experimentally and verified mathematically based on contact mechanics. The predictable models, Mode I (wafer is in contact with abrasives and pad) and Mode II (wafer is in contact with abrasives only), were proposed and used to explain the threshold point. The average COF value increased in the low abrasives concentration region which might be explained by Mode I. In contrast the average COF value decreased at high abrasives concentration which might be regarded to as Mode II. The threshold point observed seemed to be due to the transition from Mode I to Mode II. The tendency of threshold point with the variation of abrasive size was studied. The increase of particle radius could cause contact status to reach transition area faster. The correlation between COF and material removal rate was also investigated from the tribological and energetic point of view. Due to the energy loss by vibration of polishing equipment, COF value is not proportional to the material removal rate in this experiment.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.101-119
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• 2000

In order to establish water quality management planning in some watershed, water quality of the future of the watershed should be predicted first. The Yongsan river various pollutant sources ; sewage, industry, livestock, farming and so on. And pollutants from these sources are likely to increase even though a number of publicly owned treatment works(POTWs) are founded. Therefore, it is estimated that water quality if the river would be even worse than now in near future. In this study, water quality of the future(2001, 2006) on the Yongsan river was simulated with QUAL2E model. Concentration of three water quality parameters(BOD, T-N, T-P) was predicted according to dry season, low flow season, average flow season of the river with and without POTWs. The results of this study showed the significant contrast in concentration between with and without POTWs, specially in terms of T-N and T-P. Therefore, POTWs must be founded around the Yongsan river and more advanced treatment should be considered. And because these parameters are mostly affected by polluants from upper watershed, including Kwangiudcheon, water quality management planning on the Yongsan river might be focused on this area.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.235-250
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• 2014

The impacts of membrane degradation due to chlorine attack on the rejection of inorganic salts and trace organic contaminants by nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were investigated in this study. The rejection of trace contaminants was examined at environmentally relevant concentrations. Changes in the membrane surface morphology were observed as a result of chlorine exposure. A small increase in rejection was consistently observed with all four membranes selected in this study after being exposed to a low concentration of hypochlorite (100 ppm). In contrast, a higher concentration of hypochlorite (i.e., 2000 ppm) could be detrimental to the membrane separation capacity. Membranes with severe chlorine impact showed a considerable decrease in rejection over filtration time, possibly due to rearrangement of the polyamide chains under the influence of chlorine degradation and filtration pressure. The reported results indicate that loose NF membranes are more sensitive to chlorine exposure than RO membranes. The impact of hypochlorite exposure (both positive and negative) on rejection is dependent on the strength of the hypochlorite solution and is more significant for the neutral carbamazepine compound than the negatively charged sulfamethoxazole.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.15-19
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• 2015

We developed a high-throughput microscopy (HTM) method which enabled us to replace a conventional phase contrast microscopy (PCM) method that has been used as a standard analytical method for airborne asbestos. We could obtain the concentration of airborne asbestos fibers under detection limit by automated image processing and analysis using HTM method. Here we propose an improved image processing algorithm with variable parameters to enhance the accuracy of the HTM analysis. Since the variable parameters that compensate the difference of the brightness are applied to the individual images in our new image processing method, it is possible to enhance the accuracy of the automatic image analysis method for sample slides with low asbestos concentration that caused errors in binary image processing. We demonstrated that enumeration of fibers by improved image processing algorithm remarkably enhanced the accuracy of HTM analysis in comparison with PCM. The improved HTM method can be a potential alternative to conventional PCM.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.417-421
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• 2011

Because beverage waste contains a lot of sugar, it can be used as a valuable resource for energy. But beverage waste is discharged through the water treatment. To prevent the waste of the energy resource, we produced bioethanol by using beverage waste in this study. In order to produce bioethanol, we added distillers stillage and NaOH for fermentation condition (nutrients and pH adjustment). As a results, ethanol concentration was 5.92 vol%. In contrast, ethanol concentration of blank (not added nutrients) was low and fermentation rate was very slow. Because components of the distillers stillage help the yeast growth, fermentation yield and rate was improved. Finally, we operated distillation and dehydration process by using fermented mash and produced fuel bioethanol (more than 99.5 wt%). We think that this results may provide useful information with application of commercial ethanol production using beverage waste.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.99-102
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• 2011

Objectives: Acetone/triacetine method for clearing cellulose ester membrane (CEM) filter has been a popular method for air-borne asbestos analysis. However, as a weakness of this method, it is time consuming to analyses asbestos samples after sampling. Crystalclear method can be used to analyses asbestos samples promptly after sampling. Although a strength of crystal clear method exists, there was little valid studied for the method. This study was conducted to compare acetone/triacetine method with crystalclear one for analysing asbestos sample. Methods: Test samples made in three different concentration ranges(low, medium and high concentration) were analysed by phase contrast microscopy after acetone/triacetine and crystalclear method treatment respectively. Results: We did not find statistical difference in analysed results between two methods, which were conducted in three different concentrations ranges. Conclusions: We concluded that crystalclear method can be used as clearing method for air-borne asbestos analysis instead of acetone/triacetine method.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.208-215
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• 2021

𝛽-Patchoulene (𝛽-PAE) is a tricyclic sesquiterpene which performed many potential bioactivities and can be found in patchouli oil but in very low concentration. This study aimed to obtained 𝛽-PAE in high concentration by conversion of patchouli alcohol (PA) in patchouli oil under acid catalyzed reaction. Patchouli oil was fractinated by vacuum distillation at 96 kPa to get the fraction with the highest PA content. H₂SO₄ and ZnCl₂ were used respectively as homogeneous and heterogeneous acid catalysts in the conversion reaction of the selected fraction. Patchouli oil, the fractions and the products were analysed by using GC-MS and FTIR instruments. Moreover, the interaction of 𝛽-PAE to COX-2 protein was studied to understand the antiinflammation activity of 𝛽-PAE. The results showed that patchouli oil contains 25.3% of PA. The selected fraction which has the highest PA content (70.3%) was distilled at 151 - 152 ℃. The application of ZnCl₂ catalyst in conversion reaction did not succeed. In contrast, H₂SO₄ as a catalyst in acetic acid solvent succeeded in converting the overall fraction of PA to 𝛽-PAE. Furthermore, the molecular docking study of 𝛽-PAE against COX-2 enzyme showed van der Waals and alkyl-alkyl stacking interactions on ten amino acid residues.