• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1309-1313
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• 2004

A simple and reliable method has been developed to selectively separate and concentrate trace amounts of thallium ion from real samples for the subsequent measurement by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). Thallium ions are absorbed quantitatively during passage of aqueous real samples through an octadecyl bonded silica membrane disk modified by 4-(4-Chloro-phenylazo)-2-[(4-hydroxy-phenylamino)-methyl]-phenol. The retained $Tl^+$ ions are then stripped from the disk quantitatively with a minimal amount of thiosulfate solution as eluent. The proposed method permitted large enrichment factors of about 130 and higher. The relative standard deviation for ten replicate extraction of thallium from 1 L samples containing 5 ${\mu}g$ thallium is 1.2%. The break through volume for 5 ${\mu}g$ thallium is 1000 mL. The limit of detection of the proposed method is 11.2 ng of $Tl^+$ per 1000 mL. The effects of various cationic interferences on the recovery of thallium in binary mixtures were studied. The method was applied to the recovery of $Tl^+$ ions from natural water and human hair samples.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.123-126
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• 2023

The prevalence of candidiasis, a contagious disease with high morbidity and mortality, has sharply increased globally over the last two decades. Candida albicans can cause serious infections in patients with weak immunity and in recipients of prolonged antibiotic treatment. Consequently, rapid and accurate identification of species can play an important role in the treatment of candidiasis. Here, we investigated the positive rate and infection trend of C. albicans according to age, specimen type, and sex using multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction-based testing of samples collected for the diagnosis of sexually transmitted diseases in Korea between 2018 and 2020. When the type of specimen collected was a swab, the positive rate of C. albicans was higher among younger women, and tended to decrease with age. Analysis of swab samples revealed higher positive rates than urinalysis. The reduction trend in positive rates by age was comparable between the overall samples and urine specimens. Among male patients, the positive rate did not differ substantially across the various types of specimens collected. Previous studies have shown a higher prevalence of non-albicans Candida species than C. albicans in clinical specimens, and exclusion of the former from our analysis may be a limitation of this study. However, our findings contribute significantly to the literature because globally, there is a paucity of epidemiological studies using molecular techniques to detect C. albicans in sexually transmitted disease test samples.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.402-409
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• 2024

High energy neutron irradiations impact on structural and electrical properties of alumina are studied with particular emphasis on real time in-situ radiation induced conductivity measurement in low flux region. Polycrystalline Al₂O₃ samples are subjected to high energy neutrons produced from D-T neutron generator and Am-Be neutron source. 14 MeV neutrons from D-T generator are chosen to study the role of fast neutron irradiation in the structural modification of samples. Real time in-situ electrical measurement is performed to investigate the change in insulation resistance of Al₂O₃ due to radiation induced conductivity at low flux regime. During neutron irradiation, a significant transient decrease in insulation resistance is observed which recovers relative higher value just after neutron exposure is switched off. XRD results of 14 MeV neutron irradiated samples suggest annealing effect. Impact of relatively low energy neutrons on the structural properties is also studied using Am-Be neutrons. In this case, clustering is observed on the sample surface after prolonged neutron exposure. The structural characterizations of pristine and irradiated Al₂O₃ samples are performed using XRD, SEM, and EDX. The results from these characterizations are analysed and interpreted in the manuscript.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.414-420
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of environmental factors such as temperature, salinity, turbidity and pH on the growth of pathogenic Vibrios. In this study, we was obtained the samples from 2 different sites of the Incheon coastal area between January 2012 and December 2012. The water temperature in August and September was the high. the Incheon port changes the width of a small, wherease in the case of Hanjin harbor of changes of larger width. Salinity and turbidity showed significant differences, whereas temperature and hydrogen ion concentration was not significant. Pathogenic vibrios was determined using the real-time PCR method. Pathogenic vibrios in the Incheon port and Hanjin harbor were detected in 11 samples (91.67%) and 9 samples (75.0%) of Vibrio cholerae, 7 samples (58.3%) and 6 samples (50.0%) of V. vulnificus, 10 samples (83.3%) and 12 samples (100.0%) of V. parahaemolyticus, respectively. Pathogenic Vibrio bacteria were the highest at $26.8^{\circ}C$ of seawater in August. Quantitative results were the following: 102 $cell/m{\ell}$ in Vibrio cholerae, 7.876 $cell/m{\ell}$ in V. vulnificus, and 503.4 $cell/m{\ell}$ in V. parahaemolyticus, respectively. The enumeration of pathogenic vibrios showed a positive correlation with temperature and pH, but was negatively correlated with salinity and turbidity.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.85-91
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• 2021

This research aims to analyze the impact of Financial Risk (FR), Information Asymmetric (IA), and Earning Power (EP) on Real Earning Management (REM) of listed trading companies in IDX Indonesia. This study aims to analyze the influence of FR, IA, EP, on REM through Operating Cash Flow, Production expense, and Discretionary Expense. The study employs an unbalanced panel of data set from 2014 to 2018 on the activity of all trading companies (15 in total) as selected samples of 48 feasible samples from 144 existing data. The sample used a non probability sampling method with a purposive sampling technique. This research was classified as causative and tested by multiple linear regression model with cross-sectional analysis. The result indicated a significant impact of FR on REM through PROD and DISX but not through COF. How ever, IA, and EP showed significant impact on REM by means of COF but not go by PROD and DISX..The findings in this study contribute to the users of financial reports particularly the stakeholders in defining the determinants of real earning management practices among firms when it comes to decision making.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.32-39
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• 2014

The goal of this research was to develop a portable system that could be used to evaluate the quality of milk in real time at a raw milk production site. A real-time portable quality evaluation system for raw milk was developed to enable non-destructive quality evaluation of somatic cell count (SCC), fat, protein, lactose, and total solid (TS) in milk samples. A prediction model of SCC, fat, protein, lactose, and TS was constructed using partial least squares (PLS) and 200 milk samples were used to evaluate the prediction performance of the portable quality evaluation system and high performance spectroscopy. Through prediction model development and verification, it was found that the accuracy of high performance spectroscopy was 90% for SSC, 96% for fat, 96% for protein, 91% for lactose, and 97% for TS. In comparison, the accuracy of the portable quality evaluation system was relatively low, at 90% for SSC, 95% for fat, 92% for protein, 89% for lactose, 92% for TS. However, the measurement time for high performance spectroscopy was 10 minutes for 1 sample, while for the portable quality evaluation system it was 6 minutes. This means that the high performance spectroscopy system can measure 48 samples per day (8 hours), while the portable quality evaluation system can measure 80 (8 hours). Therefore, it was found that the portable quality evaluation system enables quick on-site quality evaluation of milk samples.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.245-253
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• 2010

The base sequences representing human- and cow-specific 168 rRNA gene markers identified in a T-RFLP analysis were recovered from clone libraries. The human- and cow-specific primers were designed from these sequences and their specificities were analyzed with fecal DNAs from human, cow, and pig. The AllBac primer set showed positive results for all human, cow, and pig samples, whereas the human-specific primer set showed positive result only for the human sample but not for the cow or pig samples. Likewise, the cow-specific primer set showed positive results only for the cow sample but not for the human or pig samples. Real-time PCR assay with these primers was developed for the identification and quantification of fecal pollution in the river water. The human- and cow-specific markers were detected in the order of 9 $\log_{10}$ copies per gram wet feces, which were two orders of magnitude lower than those of total Bacteroidales. For the river water samples, the human-specific marker was detected in $1.7-6.2\;\log_{10}$ copies/100 ml water, which was 2.4-4.9 orders of magnitude lower than those of total Bacteroidales. There was no significant correlation between total Bacteroidales and conventional fecal indicators, but there was a high correlation between Bacteroidales and the human-specific marker. This assay could reliably identify and quantify the fecal pollution sources, enabling effective measures in the watersheds and facilitating water quality management.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.71 no.4
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• pp.249-253
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• 2011

Background: Mycobacterial infection is a problem throughout the world along with the increase of immunocompromised patients. For this reason, there have been many methods for faster and more accurate diagnosis. In this study, we evaluated several laboratory methods for mycobacterial infection. Methods: From January to December 2009, 635 specimens were cultured with mycobacteria growth indicator tube (MGIT) and Ogawa media. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed with the AdvanSure tuberculosis (TB)/non-tuberculosis mycobacterium (NTM) real-time PCR Kit (LG Life Sciences, Seoul, Korea). The 69 samples showing positive culture results were identified with the AdvanSure Mycobacteria Genotyping Chip Kit (LG Life Science, Seoul, Korea). Results: Sixty-nine (10.9%) out of 635 samples showed positive results for mycobacterial culture. Among the 635 samples, 64 were positive in MGIT, but only 42 were positive in Ogawa media. Of the 635 samples, 607 (95.6%) showed the same results between MGIT and Ogawa and the results of 579 (95.4%) were also consistent with the TB/NTM real-time PCR results. However, in the case of NTM, only one (1/24, 4.2%) was positive in PCR. In the Mycobacteria genotyping chip analysis, the most frequently identified NTM species in descending order were M. avium, M. intracellulare, M. chelonae and M. abscessus. Conclusion: Culturing with a combination of MGIT and Ogawa is recommended to increase the recovery rate of mycobacteria. Although PCR missed a reasonable number of NTM, it is faster and usually gives results that concur with those from the culture. The appropriate combination of diagnostic methods with clinical correlation are necessary.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.363-370
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• 2023

Human respiratory viral infections such as COVID-19 are highly contagious, so continuous management of airborne viruses is essential. In particular, indoor air monitoring is necessary because the risk of infection increases in poorly ventilated indoors. However, the current method of detecting airborne viruses requires a lot of time from sample collection to confirmation of results. In this study, we proposed a system that can monitor airborne viruses in real time to solve the deficiency of the present method. Air samples were collected in liquid form through a bio sampler, in which case the virus is present in low concentrations. To detect viruses from low-concentration samples, viral RNA was concentrated and extracted using silica-magnetic beads. RNA binds to silica under certain conditions, and by repeating this binding reaction, bulk samples collected from the air can be concentrated. After concentration and extraction, viral RNA is specifically detected through real-time qPCR (quantitative polymerase chain reaction). In addition, based on liquid handling technology, we have developed an automatic machine that automatically performs the entire testing process and can be easily used even by non-experts. To evaluate the system, we performed air sample collection and automated testing using bacteriophage MS2 as a model virus. As a result, the air-collected samples concentrated by 45 times then initial volume, and the detection sensitivity of PCR also confirmed a corresponding improvement.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.280-288
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• 2018

In this study, an approach for the analysis of the five cephalopod species (octopus, long-arm octopus, squid, wet-foot octopus, beka squid) consumed in the Republic of Korea is developed. The samples were collected from the Southeast Asian countries Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and China. The SYBR-green-based real-time qPCR method, based on the mitochondrial DNA genome of the five cephalopods was developed and validated. The intergroup variations in the mitochondrial DNA are evident in the bioinformatic analysis of the mitochondrial genomic DNA sequences of the five groups. Some of the highly-conserved and slightly-variated regions are identified in the mitochondrial cytochrome-c-oxidase subunit I (COI) gene, 16s ribosomal RNA (16s rRNA) gene, and 12s ribosomal RNA (12s rRNA) gene of these groups. To specify each five cephalopod groups, specific primer sets were designed from the COI, 16s rRNA and 12s rRNA regions. The specific primer sets amplified the DNA using the SYBR-green-based real-time PCR system and 11 commercially secured animal tissues: Octopus vulgaris, Octopus minor, Todarodes pacificus, Dosidicus gigas, Sepia esculenta, Amphioctopus fangsiao, Amphioctopus aegina, Amphioctopus marginatus, Loliolus beka, Loligo edulis, and Loligo chinensis. The results confirmed by a conveient way to calculate relative amplification levels between different samples in that it directly uses the threshold cycles (Ct)-value range generated by the qPCR system from these samples. This genomic DNA-based molecular technique provides a quick, accurate, and reliable method for the taxonomic classification of the animal tissues using the real-time qPCR.