• Childhood Kidney Diseases
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.35-41
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• 2013

Routine urinalysis is a simple, economical, and useful test that facilitates the detection of urinary system diseases and monitoring of renal disease progression. It consists of 4 parts of specimen evaluation, gross examination, a dipstick urinalysis, and a sediment microscopic urinalysis. Urine specimens should first be evaluated in terms of acceptability, and thereafter, the gross appearance is examined for color, turbidity, and odor. In particular, a dipstick urinalysis is an easy and rapid test that provides information on the multiple physicochemical properties of the urine sample. Moreover, although a sediment microscopic urinalysis is time-consuming, it provides information on the cells, microorganisms, casts, and crystals. In the present report, the clinical significance of the routine urinalysis and the problems concerning interpretation are summarized.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.440-446
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• 2010

Array-based gas sensors now offer the potential of a robust analytical approach to odor measurement for medical use. We are developing a fast reliable method for detection of microbial infection by monitoring the headspace from the infected wound. In this paper, we present initial results obtained from wound-state monitoring for burn patients using an electronic nose incorporating an automated solid-phase microextraction (SPME) desorption system to enable the system to be used for clinical validation. SPME preconcentration is used for sampling of the headspace air and the response of the sensor module to variable concentrations of volatiles emitted from SPME fiber is evaluated. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry studies prove that living bacteria, the typical infectious agents in clinical practice, can be distinguished from each other by means of a limited set of key volatile products. Principal component analysis results give the first indication that infected patients may be distinguished from uninfected patients. Microbial laboratory analysis using clinical samples verifies the performance of the system.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.17 no.sup
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• pp.43-50
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• 2011

This study was conducted to verify the effect of chlorine dioxide ($ClO_2$) on odor reduction at a commercial swine facility consisting of a windowless piglet barn and a grower/fattening barn. The windowless piglet barn used a duct ventilation system. Air velocity at very below the upper duct was 4.53 m/s. Air velocity at the lower space around the living space of pigs in the grower/fattening barn was 0.26 m/s. $NH_3$ concentration was around 9ppm and less than 3 ppm before and after the $ClO_2$ spraying, respectively, which was over 70% reduction. There was no $H_2S$ detection. $NH_3$ concentrations measured in the windowless grower/fattening barn and at the exhausted air were 26 ppm and 11ppm, respectively. $NH_3$ concentration at a biocurtain outside was less than 1 ppm. Hence, $ClO_2$ spraying at windowless barns was effectively decreased malodor such as $NH_3$.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.64-69
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• 2009

Musty and earth odors caused by geosmin and 2-MIB are the major complaints from the drinking water consumers. Therefore, early detection of geosmin and 2-MIB is the key to prevent off-flavor occurrence. In this study, a rapid method using stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) in combination with the GC/MS was investigated to analyze geosmin and 2-MIB in water. The SBSE method, a solventless extraction technique, was optimized and then applied to the analysis of geosmin and 2-MIB in water. The SBSE technique was found to be a simple and fast procedure that allows many samples to be extracted simultaneously using very small volume (10~20 mL). In addition, the SBSE method offered high recovery and good linear regression coefficient for the geosmin and 2-MIB. The good repeatability of this method can be deduced from the low RSD (7.2~7.6%) at 10 ng/L for geosmin and 2-MIB. The limit of detection was determined 1~2 ng/L and the limit of quantitation was 3~6 ng/L. Above all, the SBSE method proved to be a very practical technique for the analysis of geosmin and 2-MIB in water.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.45-56
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• 2003

$TAO^{TM}$ System is an auto-heated thermophilic aerated digestion process using a proprietary microbe called as a Phototropic Bacteria (PTB). High metabolic activity results in heat generation, which enables to produce a pathogen-free and digested liquid fertilizer at short retention times. TAO$^{TM}$ system has been developed to reduce a manure volume and convert into the liquid fertilizer using swine manure since 1992. About 100 units have been installed and operated in Korean swine farms so far. TAO$^{TM}$ system consists of a reactor vessel and ejector-type aeration pumps and foam removers. The swine slurry manure enters into vessel with PTB and is mixed and aerated. The process is operated at detention times from 2 to 4 days and temperature of 55 to $65^{\circ}C$. Foams are occurred and broken down by foam removers to evaporate water contents. Generally, at least 30% of water content is evaporated, 99% of volatile fatty acids caused an odor are removed and pathogen destruction is excellent with fecal coliform, rotavirus and salmonella below detection limits. The effluent from TAO$^{TM}$ system, called as the "TAO EFFLUX", is screened and has superb properties as a fertilizer. Normally N-P-K contents of screened TAO Efflux are 4.7 g/L, 0.375 g/L and 2.8 g/L respectively. The fertilizer effect of TAO EFFLUX compared to chemical fertilizer has been demonstrated and studied with various crops such as rice, potato, cabbage, pumpkin, green pepper, parsley, cucumber and apple. Generally it has better fertilizer effects and excellent soil fertility improvement effects. Moreover, the TAO EFFLUX is concentrated through membrane technology without fouling problems for a cost saving of long distance transportation and a commercialization (crop nutrient commodity) to a gardening market, for example.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.512-522
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• 2009

In this study, the removal efficiency of trimethylamine (TMA) and four reduced sulfur compounds (RSC) of $H_2S$, $CH_3SH$, DMS, and DMDS was investigated using deionized water as absorbent. To this end, two types of experiments were conducted which include: (1) by passing both RSC and TMA standard gases through water contained in an impinger system and (2) by passing TMA gases through a water spray system. In the former method, TMA standard gases were effectively removed (below detection limit) in all experiments. Likewise, minor fractions of some RSC ($CH_3SH$, DMS, and DMDS) were removed by water in line with theoretical expectations. In addition, the first type of our experiment was extended further to test some commercially available odor treatment products. The results of this test showed that removal efficiencies of RSC $(8.2\pm13.7\sim43.7\pm2.48%)$ were different significantly among 4 kinds of absorbent, while the removal of TMA was consistently good as water. In the second phase of experiment, removal efficiency of TMA was tested by passing its standard gas through a water spray system. The overall results of our study showed that the actual removal efficiency of odorants by water (as sorptive media) approached the values that can be predicted theoretically (by Henry's law).

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.329-334
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• 2004

The electronic nose (E-nose) recently finds its applications in medical diagnosis, specifically on detection of diabetes, pulmonary or gastrointestinal problem, or infections by examining odors in the breath or tissues with its odor characterizing ability. The odor recognition performance of E-nose can be improved by manipulating the sensor array responses of vapors in time-profile forms. The different chemical interactions between the sensor materials and the volatile organic compounds (VOC's) leave unique marks in the signal profiles giving more information than collection of the conventional piecemal features, i.e., maximum sensitivity, signal slopes, rising time. In this study, to use them in vapor recognition task conveniently, a novel time-profile method was proposed, which is adopted from digital image pattern matching. The degrees of matching between 8 different vapors were evaluated by using the proposed method. The test vapors are measured by the silicon-based gas sensor array with 16 CB-polymer composites installed in membrane structure. The results by the proposed method showed clear discrimination of vapor species than by the conventional method.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.115-121
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• 2015

This study was conducted to confirm quality properties of sterilized Ganjang-gejang (marinated crab Portunus trituberculatus) with Korean soy sauce using by gamma irradiation and to improve quality of sterilized Ganjang-gejang. The Ganjang-gejang was irradiated at dose of 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 kGy by gamma irradiation and there was evaluated in microbiological, physicochemical, and sensory properties. Total aerobic bacteria and fungi contents of non-irradiated samples were about 6 and 4 log CFU/g level, respectively. Gamma-irradiated samples at above 9 kGy did not contain aerobic bacteria or fungi at detection limit less than 2 log CFU/g, but sensory scores were significantly decreased depending on the irradiation dose. To improve the sensory qualities of gamma-irradiated Ganjang-gejang, the temperature was adjusted during sample irradiation. When samples were irradiated under freezing temperatures, especially on dry ice, the TBARS and the deterioration of sensory qualities of Ganjan-Gejang were reduced. Different odor patterns were observed among samples, as observed using electronic nose analysis system. The results of this study indicated that treatment with irradiation under low temperatures may help to preparing high-quality Ganjang-gejang.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.69-77
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• 2005

The electronic nose (e-nose) has been used in food industry and quality controls in plastic packaging. Recently it finds its applications in medical diagnosis, specifically on detection of diabetes, pulmonary or gastrointestinal problem, or infections by examining odors in the breath or tissues with its odor characterizing ability. Moreover, the use of portable e-nose enables the on-site measurements and analysis of vapors without extra gas-sampling units. This is expected to widen the application of the e-nose in various fields including point-of-care-test or e-health. In this study, a PDA-based portable e-nose was developed using micro-machined gas sensor array and miniaturized electronic interfaces. The rich capacities of the PDA in its computing power and various interfaces are expected to provide the rapid and application specific development of the diagnostic devices, and easy connection to other facilities through information technology (IT) infra. For performance verification of the developed portable e-nose system, Six different vapors were measured using the system. Seven different carbon-black polymer composites were used for the sensor array. The results showed the reproducibility of the measured data and the distinguishable patterns between the vapor species. Additionally, the application of two typical pattern recognition algorithms verified the possibility of the automatic vapor recognition from the portable measurements. These validated the portable e-nose based on PDA developed in this study.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.488-497
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• 2009

In this study, analytical methodology for several organic fatty acids (OFA: propionic acid (PA), butyric acid (BA), isovaleric acid (IA), and valeric acid (VA)) designated as new offensive odorants in Korea (as of year 2010) was investigated along with some odorous VOCs (styrene, toluene, xylene, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, butyl acetate, and isobutyl alcohol). For this purpose, working standards (WS) containing all of these 13 compounds were loaded into adsorption tube filled with Tenax TA, and analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) system thermal desorber interfaced with. The analytical sensitivities of organic fatty acids expressed in terms of detection limit (both in absolute mass (ng) and concentration (ppb)) were lower by 1.5-2 times than other compounds (PA: 0.24 ng (0.16 ppb), BA: 0.19 ng (0.11 ppb), IA: 0.15 ng (0.07 ppb), and VA: 0.28 ng (0.13 ppb)). The precision of BA, IA, and VA, if assessed in terms of relative standard error (RSE), maintained above 5%, while the precison of other compounds were below 5%. The reproducibility of analysis improved with the aid of internal standard calibration (PA: $1.1{\pm}0.4%$, BA: $10{\pm}0.46$, IA; $12{\pm}0.3%$, VA: $4{\pm}0.1%$), respectively. The results of this study showed that organic fatty acid can be analyzed using adsorption tube and thermal desorber in a more reliable way to replace alkali absorption method introduced in the odor prevention law of the Korea Ministry of Environment (KMOE).