• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.64-80
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• 1998

The risk of cross-contamination in dental clinic is very high. Those who are engaged in dental clinic are exposed to various microorganisms in saliva and blood of patient. Potential possibility of cross-contamination of patient to patient, patient to dentist, dentist to laboratory technician always exist, which is important in the view of public health. It is well known that microorganisms may cause cross-contamination by suck-back of microorganisms into the water supply line or air supply line of dental unit and sprayed back into the next patient's oral cavity. The majority of microorganisms coming from dental unit are water microorganisms from the main water supply which have colonized the tube within the units and multiplied in the relatively warm and stagnant conditions. The purpose of this study is to measure the extent of microbial contamination of dental unit and ultrasonic scaler, to evaluate that dental unit water supply is suitable for drinking water, and to assess the effect of flushing on reduction of microbial contamination of dental unit and ultrasonic scaler. In the first experiment, water samples(50ml) from 20 dental units and 10 ultrasonic scalers in Seoul National Univ. Hosp. were tested for the presence of coliform. The samples were filtered by membrane filtration technique.(Microfil system, Millipore Co. U. S. A.) The filter was then placed onto MacConkey agar plate and the plates with filter on it were incubated aerobically at $37^{\circ}C$ for 5 days. The colors and shapes of colonies were examined if those were coliform. To verify the presence of coliform, the colonies were inoculated into phenol red lactose broth and incubated aerobically at $37^{\circ}C$ for 2 days. The fomation of gas was observed. In the second experiment, water samples from 20 handpieces, 10 ultrasonic scalers and 30 A/W syringes after 0, 2, 4, 6 min. flushing respectively were taken. $200{\mu}l$ water samples were spreaded on Brain Heart Infusion agar plate and the plates were incubated aerobically at $37^{\circ}C$ for 5 days. The number of colony was counted. The results obtained were summarized as follows 1. The water from dental unit and ultrasonic scaler was not suitable for drinking water. 2. No coliform was founded in dental unit and ultrasonic scaler water supply. 3. The number of colony of dental unit and ultrasonic scaler was highest in the group of o min. flushing(p<0.05). 4. There was no statistically significant difference in the extent of microbial contamination among handpiece, ultrasonic scaler and A/W syringe (p>0.05). 5. The number of colony was lowest in the group of 4 min. flushing, but there was no statistically significant difference among 2, 4, 6 min. flushing groups.(p>0.05) 6. It is recommended to flush dental unit water line for 4 min. after use on each patient.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.99-101
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• 1998

1. Introduction : The conventional grafting polymerization technique requires chemically reactive groups on the surface as well as on the polymer chains. For this reason, a series of prefunctionalization steps are necessary for covalent grafting. The surface prefunctionalizational technique for grafting can be used to ionization radiation, UV, plasma, ion beam or chemical initiators. Of these techniques, radiation method is one of the useful methods because of uniform and rapid creation of active radical sites without catalytic contamination in grafted samples. If the diffusion of monomer into polymer is large enough to come to the inside of polymer substrate, a homogeneous and uniform grafting reaction can be carried out throughout the whole polymer substrate. Radiation-induced grafting method may attach specific functional moieties to a polymeric substrate, such as preirradiation and simultaneous irradiation. The former is irradiated at backbone polymer in vacuum or nitrogen gas and air, and then subsequent monomer grafting by trapped or peroxy radicals, while the latter is irradiated at backbone polymer in the presence of the monomer. Therefore, radiation-induced polymerization can be used to modification of the chemical and physical properties of the polymeric materials and has attracted considerable interest because it imparts desirable properties such as blood compatibility. membrane quality, ion excahnge, dyeability, protein adsorption, and immobilization of bioactive materials. Synthesizing biocompatible materials by radiation method such as preirradiation or simultaneous irradiation has often used $\gamma$-rays to graft hydrophilic monomers onto hydrophobic polymer substrates. In this work, in attempt to produce surfaces that show low levels of anti-fouling of bovine serum albumin(BSA) solutions, hydroxyethyl methacrylate(HEMA) was grafted polypropylene membrane surfaces by preirradiation technique. The anti-fouling effect of the polypropylene membrane after grafting was examined by permeation BSA solution.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.9-20
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• 2020

Membranes are used in most processes of biopharmaceutical production. It is used for pretreatment of other processes, separation of impurities in the process, virus removal, control of products concentration and buffer solution exchange. Virus filters play an important role in ensuring product efficacy and stability because viral contamination of biopharmaceuticals for humans is a sensitive issue that is directly related to serious clinical outcomes. Virus filters typically have complex multilayer structures made of various polymers such as surface-modified PVDF, PES, CRC. Depending on the manufacturer, filters have different pore structures and shapes, such as symmetric or asymmetric, and is used in the form of pleated membrane, flat sheets or hollow fibers. Virus filters are exclusively supplied by few foreign companies such as Asahi Kasei, Millipore, Pall and Sartorius. Replacing virus filters can be time consuming and expensive, including approval from regulatory agencies through validation. As localization has become important due to Japan's recent export regulations, it is necessary to increase the degree of technical independence.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.393-403
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• 2021

Enzymes are important class of catalyst for biotransformation. Stability and reusability of enzymes during the catalysis process is a key issue. Activity of enzyme can be enhanced by its immobilization on a suitable substrate by creation of specific microenvironment. A variety of membranes has been used as substrate due to the biocompatibility and simpler method to tune hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity property of the membrane surface. In this review, polymer membranes including cellulose, polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyethersulfone (PES) are introduced and discussed in detail. Biodegradation of organic contaminants by immobilized enzyme is an environmental friendly process to reduce the contamination of environment in pharmaceutical company and textile industries. The controlled hydrolysis of oil can be performed in enzyme immobilized membrane bioreactor (EMBR), resulting in reducing carbon emission and reduced environmental pollution. Bioethanol and biodiesel are considered alternative fossil fuels that can be prepared in EMBR.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.120-123
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• 2011

A total of 30 water samples were collected from 30 different public baths in Seoul, Korea. Contamination of public bath water by waterborne pathogens can cause disease outbreaks and contribute to increase background rates of disease. Pathogens in water was filtered by nitrocellulose membrane with $0.45{\mu}m$ pore size. The membrane filters were analyzed by both cultivation and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of partial 16S rRNA gene. Various microorganisms including 4 Escherichia coli/Shigella spp. 1 Salmonella spp. 3 Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 2 Mycobacterium spp. were identified by reverse blot hybridization assay (REBA). PCR-REBA was able to identify many bacterial genera in one assay. Our results suggest that appropriate hygiene practice and continuous monitoring is needed for reducing health risk associated with public bath houses.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.213-217
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of bacterial contamination on elapsed time after preservation on boar semen. Known numbers of Escherichia coli (E. coli) were inoculated to freshly ejaculated semen and sperm parameters such as viability, motility, agglutination, acrosome integrity and hypo-osmotic swelling test were performed during 7 days of liquid preservation. Semen samples were prepared using antibiotic free BTS extender and 4 different levels of E. coli were treated to semen with following concentrations; 3,000, 5,000, 7,000, 10,000 CFU/ml of sperms. Semen samples were preserved at $17^{\circ}C$ for 7 days in semen storage until analyzed. Aliquots were subjected to measure the sperm viability, motility and agglutination using computer assisted sperm analysis (CASA) system, acrosome integrity was performed using chlortetracycline (CTC) staining method and hypo-osmotic swelling test was performed using hypotonic solution from day 1 (day of semen collection) to 7. Detrimental effects on sperm motility and viability were observed 3 days after preservation at the level of 5,000 CFU/ml (p<0.05). Percentage of sperm abnormality was higher (p<0.05) in over 5,000 CFU/ml groups. Sperm agglutination rate was also significantly higher (p<0.05) in groups of 5,000 and 7,000 CFU/ml. The rate of acrosome reacted sperm was higher as preservation time goes in all the samples but the pattern was clearly higher among E. coli contaminated groups (p<0.05). The sperm membrane integrity in terms of hypo-osmotic test, E. coli affects little compared to other sperm parameters. The deleterious effects observed due to the bacterial contamination in semen suggest that importance of hygiene protocol to minimize the bacterial contamination during semen collection and processing.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.195-203
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• 2018

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has been widely used as an initial mucolytic agent and is generally used as an antioxidant to help alleviate various inflammatory symptoms. NAC reduces bacterial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) production, bacterial adhesion to the surface and strength of mature biofilm. The efficacy has been shown to inhibit proliferation of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. In membrane bioreactor (MBR) processes, which contain a variety of gram negative bacteria, biofilm formation has become a serious problem in stable operation. In this study, use of NAC as an inhibitor of biofilm contamination was investigated using the center for disease control (CDC) reactors with MBR sludge. Biomass reduction was confirmed with CLSM images of membrane surfaces by addition of NAC, which was more efficient as the concentration of NAC was increased to 1.5 mg/mL. NAC addition also showed decreases in EPS concentrations of the preformed biofilm, indicating that NAC was able to degrade EPS in the mature biofilm. NAC addition was also effective to inhibit biofilm formation by MBR sludge, which consisted of various microorganisms in consortia.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.132-139
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• 1999

Solid scintillation proximity membranes were prepared for measuring the amount of radioactivity in laboratories contaminated by the radionuclide of $^3H$-cortisol. The membranes, consisting of polysulfone as a polymer matrix and cerium activated yttrium silicate as a fluor, were used to monitor the amount of radioactivity without the aid of a scintillation cocktail required for the conventional wipe test. The test results of the cocktail-free wipe test showed that the prepared membranes were efficient to monitor radionuclide-contaminated areas with the good counting ability as well as with the decrease of overall production of radioactive waste. On the other hand, solvent treatment of the prepared membranes could induce a significant variation of membrane morphology, but the counting efficiency of the solvent-treated membranes was not improved than that of the untreated one.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2016

For high volume manufacturing using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, mask protection from contamination during lithography process must be solved, and EUV pellicle is the strongest solution. Based on the technical requirements of EUV pellicle, EUV pellicle should have large membrane area ($110{\times}140mm^2$) with film transmittance over 90% and mechanical stability. Even though pellicle that satisfies size standard with high transmittance has been reported, its mechanical stability has not been confirmed, nor is there a standard to evaluate the mechanical stability. In this study, we suggest a rather simple method evaluating mechanical stability of pellicle membrane using spin-coater which can emulate the linear accelerated motion. The test conditions were designed by simulating the acceleration distribution inside pellicle membrane through correlating the linear acceleration and centripetal acceleration, which occurs during linear movement and rotation movement, respectively. By these simulation results, we confirmed the possibility of using spin-coater to evaluate the mechanical stability of EUV pellicle.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.771-777
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• 1999

The structural function of three egg membrane layers and cuticle layer, and the effectiveness of 5 film coatings (chitosan, starch, gelatin, dextrin, mineral oil) on the prevention of Salmonella enteritidis penetration was investigated using confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM). Diameters of outer membrane fibers, inner membrane fibers and limiting membrane particles in eggshell were $1.5{\sim}7.2$, $0.8{\sim}2.0$ and $0.1{\sim}1.4\;{\mu}m$, respectively and average thicknesses were 10.0, 3.5, $3.6\;{\mu}m$, respectively. Average thickness of cuticle layer was $6.0\;{\mu}m$ and cuticle layer covered $40{\sim}80%$ of total eggshell surface. Average coating films thickness for chitosan, starch, gelatin, dextrin and mineral oil were 2.2, 2.5, 3.9, 3.6 and $5.0\;{\mu}m$, respectively. After immersion process eggshell surface was almost completely covered by coating films. Chitosan coating was most effective among 5 film coatings in inhibiting growth of Salmonella enteritidis. Penetration process of Salmonella enteritidis through eggshell was investigated by multicolor imaging using CSLM and plate counting. Cuticle layer was the most important structure in blocking the penetration. Among 5 film coatings, chitosan showed the best and similar effectiveness with cuticle layer.