• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.181-190
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• 2024

Bovine mastitis-associated Escherichia coli (BMEC) is considered the main causative agent of significant financial losses in the dairy industry worldwide, as it alters both the quantity and quality of milk produced and increases the rate of culling. This creates a variety of challenges for researchers, veterinarians, and farmers in understanding and determining the most effective therapies and diagnostic techniques. Subclinical mastitis is particularly concerning, as infected bovines exhibit no obvious symptoms and continue to secrete apparently normal milk over an extended period, allowing the causative pathogen, E. coli, to spread within the herd. For effective prevention, understanding the pathogenesis of mastitis through three stages invasion, infection, and inflammation is essential. To date, no clear correlation has been found between virulence factors and pathogenicity contributing to the clinical severity of BMEC. Multidrug-resistant E. coli and the evolution of novel resistance mechanisms have become concerns owing to the extensive use of antibiotics to treat mastitis. Therefore, it is vital to explore alternative controls to enhance the efficacy of BMEC treatment. Over the past 30 years, various genetic typing techniques have been used to examine the subspecies-level epidemiology of bovine mastitis. These studies have advanced our understanding of the origin, transmission pathway, population structure, and evolutionary relatedness of BMEC strains. In this review we provide an overview of BMEC, including insights into its etiology, genetic relationship, pathogenesis, and management of the disease, as well as new therapy options.

• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.513-523
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• 2024

Background/Aims: Since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, hospitals have implemented infection control measures to minimize the spread of the virus within facilities. This study aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) and common respiratory virus (cRV) infections in hematology units. Methods: This retrospective study included all patients hospitalized in Catholic Hematology Hospital between 2019 and 2020. Patients infected with vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE), carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE), Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), and cRV were analyzed. The incidence rate ratio (IRR) methods and interrupted time series analyses were performed to compare the incidence rates before and after the pandemic. Results: The incidence rates of CPE and VRE did not differ between the two periods. However, the incidence of CDI increased significantly (IRR: 1.41 [p = 0.002]) after the COVID-19 pandemic. The incidence of cRV infection decreased by 76% after the COVID-19 outbreak (IRR: 0.240 [p < 0.001]). The incidence of adenovirus, parainfluenza virus, and rhinovirus infection significantly decreased in the COVID-19 period (IRRs: 0.087 [p = 0.003], 0.031 [p < 0.001], and 0.149 [p < 0.001], respectively). Conclusions: The implementation of COVID-19 infection control measures reduced the incidence of cRV infection. However, CDI increased significantly and incidence rates of CPE and VRE remained unchanged in hematological patients after the pandemic. Infection control measures suitable for each type of HCAI, such as stringent hand washing for CDI and enough isolation capacities, should be implemented and maintained in future pandemics, especially in immunocompromised patients.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.329-343
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• 2004

We conducted to investigate citizen's attitude to the treatment of food waste in Yongin city. The respondent of $41.81\%$ throws the food waste eliminate from home and store less than 1l in Yongin. When they dump the food waste, they speak out the inconvenience of damaged envelope by animals in case of home and store. This caused troubles for reason of sanitary. So a local autonomous entity must carefully consider of expand use specially designed container as like apartment house. They give an answer that the collecting time of food waste is suitable form dawn till morning. This answer shows the satisfaction of the period time to collect the food waste. They prefer to be appointed the exclusive place to collect food waste. The service interval of collect is suitable 1 time a day. They want to increase the number of washing of the collecting container. This is good method for sanitary condition, but the care of the period time to collect the food waste is more efficient than the care of the number of washing the collecting container. The care of the period time minimizes to incur the enmity of the people and to pollute in environment. The major of respondent handled the food waste after keeping the basket or a kit. This fact shows to us almost citizen doesn't feel the seriousness to remove the moisture of the food waste. Recently, many solutions which can be disposal efficiently are getting magnified and improved owing to increase utilities channel to loss in quantities and dry the food waste. We expect the reduction of food waste is solved getting easily step by step. The results of the awareness about the facility of food waste show citizen prefer recycling facility to the other facilities. If recycle facility and incineration facility are constructed, they were worried about bed smell. When some facility of the food waste is constructed, they have to maintain and to handle not to incur the enmity of the people. The spread rate of specially designed container already increased, the citizen set a high value on the use of specially designed container more than amount-rate vinyl envelope that people have used for several years. In the cost treatment about food waste, the major respondent answered the use cost of specially designed container is suitable price. So we can know the use charge is proper level. The majority of citizen more prefer autonomous plan which voluntary atmosphere creation and public information by mass media than levy system and rising treatment cost which forced plan. The citizens have pretty positive thinking of incineration, so the government needs more efforts for a public notice, which includes the incineration is no more than abandoned thing. Each of local self government has to sort the food waste and make kind of resource system related to collecting and carrying, constructing a suitable facility, proper disposal of the food waste and producing harmless in our surrounding in order to solve the invisible problems. To do above mentioned things, we have to analyze referred several problems till now. Also, to minimize the side effect, the government will have to improve through enforce the system.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.36-40
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• 2008

To product grafts and construct its spread-system effectively, this study was carried out to investigate into effects on the survival percentage and growth in walnut trees(Juglans sinensis Dode) according to transplanting type and post-epicotyl grafting treatment. In the average survival percentage of the grafting according to post-epicotyl grafting transplanting type, TPGB1(transplanting in grafting bed) showing 89.02% was highest. Also, the survival percentage was different from appropriate temperature and humidity within treatment. As a result of the average survival percentage of the grafting by species, KWN-3 having 81.59% was highest with high survival percentage of total treatment in general. In addition, it is concluded that the nutrition condition of scions and collecting parts are strongly related to survival percentage on having significantly difference of its survival percentage by species. The growth rate of the survival grafts by transplanting type after grafting revealed that all of the investigation items(height and diameter growth of grafts, diameter growth of scions and etc.) resulted in same trend. TPGB1 having the highest tree height growth, 15.97cm($2.0{\sim}59.0cm$), showed the highest growth on diameter growth of shoots, 7.55mm($1.65{\sim}14.71mm$), and scions, 8.12mm($1.82{\sim}13.58mm$), as well. In the growth of each treatment according to different developing parts of shoots in grafts, the lateral bud, 12.05cm, was much superior to the terminal bud,9.57cm, on only graft height growth. However, the survival rate according to collecting parts of scions and developing parts of shoots with same treatment was not different with among-species.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.1604-1611
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• 2011

In this study we assessed the effects of gamma irradiation (50 kGy) on cookies to which was added various concentrations (1%, 3%, 5%, 7%) of hot water extract from seamustad (Undaria pinnatifida) sporophylls (WEUS) for future industry use. The pH of the dough went down significantly with the addition of WEUS. However, density was not related to that. The spread ratio of the cookies increased significantly as more WEUS was added to the cookie recipe, and cookies containing gamma-irradiated extract were taller than non-irradiated cookies with the same concentration. The loss rate of cookies was the same between control and experiment groups. On the other hand, the leavening rate significantly increased upon the addition of WEUS, and gamma-irradiated cookies were higher than non-irradiated cookies in the same concentration. The L value of cookies was much reduced with higher WEUS content, but the b value showed no significant differences between the control and experiment groups. The a value showed no significant difference for non-irradiated groups, but did for gamma-irradiated groups. Upon the addition of WEUS, hardness was shown to be higher than the control. The antioxidant activity, DPPH radical scavenging, was significantly higher with the control cookies, and upon the addition of WEUS, the gamma-irradiated cookies had higher antioxidant effects than non-irradiated cookies. The sensory evaluation showed that cookies made with WEUS have a positive impact in color, smell, taste, texture, and overall acceptability, but the sensory evaluation worsened with a lot of WEUS. The results of acceptability were higher in cookies with 3% the non-irradiated group and 1% the gamma-irradiated group. These results suggest that the 1% gamma-irradiated group was in the best condition to use in the industry since just a little of it makes exceptional quality, sensory properties, and functionality.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.217-224
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• 2016

Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is prevalent in hospital environments and is an important opportunistic pathogen of nosocomial infection. It is known that this pathogen cause herd infection in hospitals, and the mortality rate is remarkably higher for patients infected with this pathogen and already have other underlying diseases. Herein, we investigated the antibiotic resistance rate and the type of resistance genes in 85 isolates of multi-drug resistant A. baumannii from the samples commissioned to laboratory medicine in two university hospitals-in hospital A and hospital B-located in Cheonan and Chungcheong provinces, respectively, in Korea. As a result, $bla_{OXA-23-like}$ and $bla_{OXA-51-like}$ were detected in 82 stains (96.5%). These 82 strains of $bla_{OXA-23-like}$ producing A. baumannii were confirmed with the ISAba1 gene found at the top of the $bla_{OXA-23-like}$ genes by PCR, inducing the resistance against carbapenemase. The armA, AME gene that induces the resistance against aminoglycoside was detected in 34 strains out of 38 strains from Hospital A (89.5%), and in 40 strains out of 47 strains from Hospital B (85.1%), while AMEs were found in 33 strains out of 38 strains from Hospital A (70.2%) and in 44 strains out of 47 strains in Hospital B (93.6%). Therefore, it was found that most multi-drug resistant A. baumannii from the Cheonan area expressed both acethyltransferase and adenyltransferase. This study investigated the multi-drug resistant A. baumannii isolated from Cheonan and Chungcheong provinces in Korea, and it is thought that the results of the study can be utilized as the basic information to cure multi-drug resistant A. baumannii infections and to prevent the spread of drug resistance.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.36-40
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• 2008

Studies were processed to confirm the differences of productivity according to sawdust size and effect of additives for sawdust cultivation of shiitake. In results of investigation until shiitake mycelia fully spread on surface of sawdust medium, mycelial growth in treatment of sawdust size $3{\sim}5\;mm$ with $CaCO_3$ and $KNO_3$, and treatment of sawdust sizw $3{\sim}5\;mm$ without $CaCO_3$ and $KNO_3$ was the fastest. And, in investigation of rate of weight reduction, treatment of sawdust size below 1 mm without $CaCO_3$ and $KNO_3$ was the highest. The tendency of fruiting was somewhat different according to treatments. In case of sawdust size below 1 mm with $CaCO_3$ and $KNO_3$, yield produced from 1st to 2nd flushing period was over 80%. However, in case of sawdust size below 1 mm plus $5{\sim}7\;mm$ without $CaCO_3$ and $KNO_3$, yield produced from 3rd to 4th flushing period was more than it from 1st to 2nd flushing period and rate of yield produced from 1st to 2nd flushing period to total yield was 34%. Results of investigation on productivity, yield and the number of fruit-bodies were remarkably different according to treatments. Sawdust size $3{\sim}5\;mm$ with $CaCO_3$ and $KNO_3$, whose total yield and the number of fruit-bodies were 568 g and 67, respectively, was the highest. And, total yield of medium of sawdust size below 1 mm plus $2{\sim}3\;mm$ without $CaCO_3$ and $KNO_3$ was lowest as 227 g and the number of fruit-bodies of medium of sawdust size below 1 mm plus $5{\sim}7\;mm$ without $CaCO_3$ and $KNO_3$ was lowest as 24. In investigation on amount of fruit-bodies over 10 g, medium of sawdust size $3{\sim}5\;mm$ with $CaCO_3$ and $KNO_3$ was highest as 397 g.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.297-316
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• 2018

The golden apple snail (GAS, Pomacea canaliculata) is an invasive freshwater snail. The GAS was introduced in Korea without prior studies on the possibility of crop damage or its impact on the natural ecosystem. The freshwater apple snails can be found typically in ponds, rice paddies, irrigation canals, roadside ditches or slower portions of streams. In this study, we were carried out to investigate the assessment of physiological and ecological characteristics, environmental characteristics inhabited area in winter season and cause of massive death at one time of golden apple snails used for weed control in wet rice paddies. The GAS was introduced from Japan to Korea for commercial production as a dietary protein supplement. The golden apple snail was also used a recently for weed control in wet rice cultivation. The species of freshwater Pomacea snails is belonging to the genus Pomacea, family ampulariidae, order mesogastropoda, subclass pulmonata, class gastropoda, phylum mollusca. The GAS spread into irrigation ditches and natural waterways. It is now distributed in ponds and canals near rice fields of southern parts of the country and has overwintered. It increases its cold hardiness before winter. However, the physiological mechanism of cold hardiness in molluscs is poorly understood, especially in freshwater molluscs. Our results on physio-ecological characteristics of the Pomacea apple snail showed that the ratio of males to females was 1: 1.99~2.33. The daily growth was 87.7 mg in weight, 0.31 mm in height and 0.33 mm in width of the their shell. On the other hand, the golden apple snails were very high to resistance on drying condition and survived rate about 80% up to 3 months. The inhabitation of GAS was no statistical significant impacts on the water quality. An important property of aqueous solutions is agricultural water quality because it affects chemical and biochemical properties such as chemical reactions, equilibrium conditions, and biological toxicity. The death rate of weed control apple snails by Ostracoda (Stenocypris hislopi) was only 2.86% and 5.71% depending on the density. Therefore, GAS was not a direct death caused by Ostracoda (Stenocypris hislopi).

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.1230-1236
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• 2012

To verify that the electrokinetic remediation is effective for decreasing salinity of fields of the plastic-film house, field tests for physical property, chemical property, and crop productivity of soils have been conducted. The abridged result of those tests is as follows. In the EK treatment, the electrokinetic remediation has been treated at the constant voltage (about 0.8 V $cm^{-1}$) for fields of the farm household. At this time, an alternating current (AC) 220 V of the farm household was transformed a direct current. The HSCI (High Silicon Cast Iron) that the length of the stick for a cation is 20cm, and the Fe Plate for an anion have been spread out on the ground. As the PVC pipe that is 10 cm in diameter was laid in the bottom of soils, cations descend on the cathode were discharged together. For soil physical properties according to the EK treatment, the destruction effect of soil aggregate was large, and the infiltration rate of water was increased. However, variations of bulk density and porosity were not considerable. Meanwhile, in chemical properties of soils, principal ions of such as EC, $NO_3{^-}$-N, $K^+$, and $Na^+$ were better rapidly reduced in the EK treated control plot than in the untreated control plot. And properties such as pH, $P_2O_5$ and $Ca^{2+}$ had a small impact on the EK. For cropping season of crop cultivation according to the EK treatment, decreasing rates of chemical properties of soils were as follows; $NO_3{^-}$-N 78.3% > $K^+$ 72.3% > EC 71.6% $$\geq_-$$ $Na^+$ 71.5% > $Mg^{2+}$ 36.8%. As results of comparing the experimental plot that EK was treated before crop cultivation with it that EK was treated during crop cultivation, the decreasing effect of chemical properties was higher in the case that EK was treated during crop cultivation. After the EK treatment, treatment effects were distinct for $NO_3{^-}$-N and EC that a decrease of nutrients is clear. However, because the lasting effect of decreasing salinity were not distinct for the single EK treatment, fertilization for soil testing was desirable carrying on testing for chemical properties of soils after EK treatments more than two times. In the growth of cabbages according to the EK treatment, the rate of yield increase was 225.5% for the primary treatment, 181.0% for the secondary treatment, and 124.2% for third treatment compared with the untreated control plot. The yield was increased by a factor of 130.0% for the hot pepper at the primary treatment (Apr. 2011), 248.1% for the lettuce at the secondary treatment (Nov.2011), and 125.4% for the young radish at the third treatment (Jul. 2012). In conclusion, the effect of yield increase was accepted officially for all announced crops.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.447-455
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• 2009

Background: Prosthetic valve endocarditis usually presents with clinical symptoms that are more severe than native valve endocarditis, and prosthetic valve endocarditis shows the spread of infection into the surrounding tissue as well as into the superficial endocardial layers. The postoperative prognosis is especially poor for valve re-replacement for the cases of active endocarditis that are unable to receive a full-course of pre-antibiotic therapy due to complications and the ensuing clinical aggravation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical profiles, laboratory findings and mid-term surgical results of active prosthetic valve endocarditis. Material and Method: Among the 276 surgically treated infective endocarditis patients who were treated during the period from January 1998 to July 2008, 31 patients were treated for prosthetic valve endocarditis. Among these patients, 24 received surgical treatment for an 'active' state, and they were selected for evaluation. Result: The most frequently encountered symptom was a febrile sensation. Eight cases (33.3%) were accompanied by systemic thromboembolism, among which 5 cases (20.8%) had an affected central nervous system. 'Vegetations' were most commonly found on transesophageal echocardiography, and the 'Staphylococcus species' were the most frequent pathogens. There were 4 deaths in the immediate postoperative period, and an additional 4 patients died during the follow-up period (Mean$\pm$SD, 42.1$\pm$36.9 months). The cumulative survival rate was 79% at 1 year, 73% at 3 years, 66% at 5 year, and 49.5% at 7 years. Conclusion: The cases of active prosthetic valve endocarditis that were unable to receive a full course of preoperative antibiotics therapy generally have a poor prognosis. Nevertheless, early surgery and extensive resection of all the infected tissue is pivotal in improving the survival rate of patients with surgically treated active prosthetic valve endocarditis.