• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.908-913
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• 2010

Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) was evaluated for the storage of pumpkin rice cake as a means of preserving quality and extending shelf-life. Retail-sized amounts of rice cake were packaged in trays under different modified atmosphere conditions (air, vacuum, 60% $CO_2$/40% $N_2$ and 100% $CO_2$) using gas-barrier plastic film; control was in air-permeable stretch wrap. The packages were stored at $20^{\circ}C$ with periodical measurement of package atmosphere and cake quality attributes. The modified atmosphere packages of 60% $CO_2$/40% $N_2$ and 100% $CO_2$ inhibited the growth of molds/yeasts completely and significantly retarded the growth of aerobic bacteria. All the packages except that of 100% $CO_2$ showed the reduction of internal $O_2$ concentration and increase of the $CO_2$ with storage time due to the microbial activity. There has been slight decrease of $CO_2$ concentration for 60% $CO_2$/40% $N_2$ and 100% $CO_2$ packages just after start of the storage possibly due to dissolution of headspace $CO_2$ into the cake. Any MAP conditions did not affect the retrogradation of the rice cake. Surface color of the cake within affordable microbial quality limit was not affected significantly by packaging conditions.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.389-395
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• 2016

Purpose: Drying is one of the most widely used methods for preserving agricultural products or food. The main purpose of drying agricultural products is to reduce their water content for minimizing microbial spoilage and deterioration reaction during storage. Methods: Although numerous drying methods are successfully applied to dehydrate various agricultural products with little drying time, the final quality of dried samples in terms of appearance and shape cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, based on published literature, this review was conducted to study the drying characteristics of various agricultural products when different drying methods were applied. Results: An increase in the drying power of sources-for example, increase in hot air temperature or velocity, infrared or microwave power-and the combination of drying power levels can reduce the drying time of various agricultural products. In addition, energy efficiency in drying significantly relies on the compositions of the dried samples and drying conditions. Conclusions: The drying power source is the key factor to control entire drying process of different samples and final product quality. In addition, an appropriate drying method should be selected depending on the compositions of the agricultural products.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.500-508
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• 2024

Recently, there has been increasing interest in enhancing the indoor air quality, particularly in response to the growing utilization of public facilities. The focus of this study was on assessing the efficacy and safety of an air sterilizer equipped with electrolytic salt catalysts. To that end, we evaluated the antimicrobial activity of the vapor spraying from the air sterilizer and its cytotoxicity in condensed form on human cell lines (HaCaT, BEAS-2B, and THP-1). Against the test organisms, which comprised five bacterial strains (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium) and one fungal strain (Candida albicans), the air sterilizer exhibited relatively high antimicrobial activities ranging from 10.89 to 73.98% following 1 and 3 hr of vapor spraying, which were notably time-dependent. Importantly, cytotoxicity assessments on human cells indicated no significant harmful effect even at a 1.0% concentration. Comprehensive safety evaluations included morphological observations, gene expression (Bcl-2, Bax) tests, and FACS analysis of intracellular ROS levels. Consistent with previous cytotoxicity findings, these estimates demonstrated no significant changes, highlighting the air sterilizer's safety and antimicrobial activities. In a simulated 20-hr operation within an indoor environment, the air sterilizer not only showed an 89.4% removal of total bacteria but also a 100.0% removal of Escherichia sp. and fungi. This research outlines the potential of the developed electrolytic salt catalyst air sterilizer to effectively remove indoor microbial pollutants without compromising human safety, underscoring the solution that it offers for improving indoor air quality.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.123-128
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• 1990

In order to establish the optimal thawing condition of frozen fork, hot-air thawing and microwave thawing were evaluated at various conditions. In hot-air thawing, the higher the air temperature and the lower the meat surface temperature, the grater the thawing rate was. In microwave thawing, the grater the power and the lower the meat core temperature, the faster the thawing rate was. Comparing the two methods, microwave thawing was found to be significantly faster than hot-air thawing. TBA value and cooking loss were higher in hot-air thawing than that of refrigeration thawing or microwave thawing. Total extractable protein tended to be lower in hot-air thawing than that of the other two thawing methods. WHC decreased with the increase of hot-air and meat surface temperature whereas no significant difference was observed in microwave thawing regardless of the thawing conditions. Total microbial counts of thawed meat by the hot-air or microwave thawing were lower than that of refrigeration thawing.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.64-71
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• 2009

Excessive soil organic matter (SOM) is detrimental to turfgrass quality when used intensively in sand-based root zones, thereby affecting the sustainability of turfgrass systems. As part of a major project examining the sustainable management of SOM on golf greens, microbial decomposition on soil organic matter accumulation with depth was assessed and the effect of soil air-condition improvement and Ca fertilization was investigated by soil microbial respiration (SMR). Three soil samples from three depths(0~5, 5~10, and 10~15cm) of 5 year and 30 year old green were analyzed for SOM content. In 30 year old green, SMR and dehydrogenase activity(DHA) were analyzed to assess the soil microbial decomposition with depth. It was then divided into 4 plots: untreated as a control, dolomite-treated, 0~5cm deep section-removed, and 0~5 cm deep section-removed+dolomite-treated. After treatment, three soil samples were taken at 1, 2 and 4 weeks by the above-mentioned method, and analyzed for SMR to better understand SOM decomposition. SOM accumulation in the 0~5cm depth of golf greens can be controlled by intensive cultivation such as coring, but below 5cm is more difficult as the results showed that SOM content below 5cm increased over time. Soil microbial decomposition of organic matter will be necessary to reduce SOM accumulation, but SMR below 5cm was low and wasn't significantly altered by increasing exposure to air and fertilizing with Ca. As a result, aeration treatments such as coring and Ca fertilization might not be effective at improving soil microbial decomposition below 5cm depth in aged greens.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.142-147
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• 2007

We optimized braising time to improve the storage quality of braised kidney beans. The beans were prepared with different heating times between 25 and 50 min. and then stored at $10^{\circ}C$ for 20 day. Physical, chemical, microbiological, and organoleptic quality indices were monitored throughout storage. Longer braising times yielded products with lower concentrated brine coverage. Bis resulted in higher soluble contents and slightly lower water activities. Excessive heating time exposed the kidney beans to air and caused rapid microbial growth on the surfaces of the beans, which negatively affected product quality. The longest heating time of 50 min. also resulted in a large increase in product hardness. A braising time of 30 min. was best for preservation, as good sensory quality was mainatained.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.117-123
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• 2022

Recently, due to COV ID-19, many people are spending most of their time indoors. So, there is a rising interest on the indoor air quality in the field of building construction. The main sources for the indoor air pollution are human indoors activity, building materials, living supplies and the polluted air from outdoor. The Korean government has designated 17 indoor air pollutants including fine dust, total airborne bacteria, fungi and carbon dioxide, etc.. Most people are always exposed to assorted bacteria and molds in our daily life, because indoor environment for human, moderate temperature are humidity, it is favourable to the growth of most of bacteria and fungi. Pine needles have an antibacterial effect against bacteria and fungi. In this study, the antibacterial activity against bacteria and fungi was tested by cement matrix using pine needle extract. As a result, the cement matrix using pine needle extract showed antibacterial activities against bacteria, but in the case of fungi, it did not show antifungal activity.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.538-545
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• 2012

The objective of this work was to study the effect of far infrared ray-vacuum drying having reflection and dispersion functions(RD-FRVD) and hot air drying(HAD) on the quality changes of dried vegetable flakes. HAD was regarded as a control. Browning degrees, color value, titratable acidity and pH value were measured as chemical evaluations. Rehydration and electron micrographs were investigated as physical evaluation. Microbial cells were counted. The color value and browning degrees were increased in both RD-FRVE and HAD. In case of degree of those changes, RD-FRVD made less changes than HAD. Especially, green bean sprout had no differences in color value and browning degrees between raw material and dried-rehydrated material. There were no significance differences in titratable acidity and pH value between raw material and dried-rehydrated material. The total microbial counts were gradually reduced in RD-FRVD. The rehydration rates of dried vegetable flakes were typically increased in RD-FRVD. Also, these results were investigated electron micrographs evaluation. Therefore, these results showed that the quality of dried-rehydrated vegetable flakes was typically enhanced by using RD-FRVD.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.81-88
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• 2011

In this study, we investigated effect of washing with brine on quality characteristics of strawberries during storage at 4 or $20^{\circ}C$. The strawberry samples were prepared with brine-washing (BW), brine-washing and removing moisture on surface (BWR), or without brine-washing and removing moisture (control). The samples were tested for total aerobic bacteria, pH, color, firmness. BWR affected the microbial change, resulting in retarding the growth of total aerobic bacteria, compared with the control and BW. The initial microbial and exponential growth phase of BWR at $4^{\circ}C$ was not detected. For pH, there wasn't dramatical change on BWR at $4^{\circ}C$ and $20^{\circ}C$. In addition, there was dramatically in decreased on control and BW. A-value was increased over storage time on control and BWR except BW. For firmness, there wasn't dramatical change on all sample when stored at $4^{\circ}C$. The results suggest that storage of strawberry stored after washing and moisture removal from the surface should be applied to maintain quality and shelf-life during storage of strawberries.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.743-750
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• 2008

In water treatment plant the Dissolved Ozone Flotation(DOF) System may be employed because this system has various abilities, such that it can remove SS using microbubbles, and it can exert strong oxidation power in removing taste and odor, color, and microbial agents. In order to investigate effectiveness of the DOF system in water treatment, removal characteristics of various water quality parameters were observed depending on the different levels of ozone concentrations. Removal efficiencies of water quality parameters in DOF system were compared with those in DAF(Dissolved Air Flotation) system and in CGS(Conventional Gravity Settling) system. Optimum ozone dose obtained in the pilot experiments was 2.7 mg/L. With increasing ozone dose higher than 2.7 mg/L, removal rates of turbidity, KMnO$_4$ consumption, UV$_{254}$ absorbance, and TOC were reversely lowered. High concentration of ozone dissociate organic matter in water, so that increasing dissolved organic level in effluent. Removal rates of water quality parameters at optimum ozone dose were obtained, such that removal rates of turbidity, KMnO$_4$ consumption, TOC, and UV$_{254}$ asorbance were 88.9%, 62.9%, 47%, and 77.3% respectively. Removal rate of THMFP was 51.6%. For all the parameters listed above, the DOF system was more effective than the DAF system or the CGS system. It is found that the DOF system may be used in advanced water treatment not only because the DOF system is more efficient in removing water quality parameters than the existing systems, but because the DOF system is also required smaller area than the CGS system for the treatment plant.