• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.95-101
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• 2022

Due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19, the demand for face masks is soaring and has often caused a shortage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of ultraviolet (UV) and drying treatments on microbial contaminants in facial masks. To conduct this study, standard procedures were designed to develop samples contaminated by the control bacteria Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The contamination level of the standard samples was approximately 6.30 × 10⁶ CFU/ml, and the UV light treatment was performed 1, 3, 5, and 7 times. To evaluate the effect of the UV and drying treatments, the masks were first treated with UV 1, 2, and 3 times, followed by the drying process. As a result, the mask contaminated with E. coli and P. aeruginosa showed a bacterial rate of approximately 99.9% after 1 UV irradiation, and in the case of the S. aureus-contaminated mask, it exhibited a bactericidal rate of approximately 99.9% after 7 UV irradiations. However, when the drying process was included after UV irradiation, all the samples contaminated with E. coli, S. aureus, and P. aeruginosa showed a bactericidal rate of 99.9% or more. The results of this study suggest that UV and drying treatments can effectively reduce the bacterial contaminants in facial masks. In addition, these results provide fundamental data and appropriate sterilization methods for reusing masks.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.412-417
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to treat the ballast water by shear stress without an environmental pollution and to find out the optimal treatment conditions. The ballast water problem is issued up as the trade activated and the cargos mobilized. To improve this problem, International Marine Organization(IMO) make the rule about the ballast water treatment with specific restrictions. Although many countries have been studying about the ballast water treatment technology, there is almost no technology that can treat the microorganisms under $50{\mu}m$ without any secondary pollution. In this study, we tried to treat ballast water by applying shear stress as the physical treatment for the sterilization and tried to find out the optimal conditions including the 100% sterilizing rate and the best economic condition.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.121-133
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• 2017

A small amount of milk is sold as 'untreated' or raw in the US; the two most commonly used heat-treatments for milk sold in retail markets are pasteurization (LTLT, low-temperature long time; HTST, high-temperature short time) and sterilization (UHT, ultra-high temperature). These treatments extend the shelf life of milk. The main purpose of heat treatment is to reduce pathogenic and perishable microbial populations, inactivate enzymes, and minimize chemical reactions and physical changes. Milk UHT processing combined with aseptic packaging has been introduced to produce shelf-stable products with less chemical damage than sterile milk in containers. Two basic principles of UHT treatment distinguish this method from in-container sterilization. First, for the same germicidal effect, HTST treatments (as in UHT) use less chemicals than cold-long treatment (as in in-container sterilization). This is because Q10, the relative change in the reaction rate with a temperature change of $10^{\circ}C$, is lower than the chemical change during bacterial killing. Based on Q10 values of 3 and 10, the chemical change at $145^{\circ}C$ for the same germicidal effect is only 2.7% at $115^{\circ}C$. The second principle is that the need to inactivate thermophilic bacterial spores (Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens, etc.) determines the minimum time and temperature, while determining the maximum time and temperature at which undesirable chemical changes such as undesirable flavors, color changes, and vitamin breakdown should be minimized.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.248-251
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate the inactivation effect of intense pulsed light (IPL) on Micrococcus roseus, an irradiation-resistant bacterium isolated from laver, and the commercial feasibility of this sterilization method on dried laver. The inactivation of M. roseus in cultivated plates increased with increasing light intensity and treatment time. Approximately 6.6 log CFU/mL reduction of the cell viability was achieved with IPL treatment for 3 min at 1,000 V of light intensity, tailing was not shown. In addition, the inactivation rate of M. roseus increased with increasing pulse number at same light intensity and treatment time. The killing efficiency for M. roseus increased with by decreasing the distance between the light source and the sample surface.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.391-398
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• 2001

A robot system for clone replication and gridding, which is a preliminary state of the genome research, was developed and evaluated its performance. This gridding robot system consisted of 1) a gridding heat that replicated the clone, 2) a manipulator, as a part of body of robot, which transferred the gridding head along x-, y-, z-axis, 3) a well plate arranging board, 4) a sterilization unit, and 5) a control unit. Performance of the system was evaluated with 1) repeatability of the robot system, 2) clone replication efficiency, 3) time requirement of the replication, and 4) sterilization efficiency. The repeatability error of the robot system showed 0.219 mm and 0.094 mm in the direction of x- and y-axis, respectively. The success rate of the clone replication with the gridding head was 100% on the membrane filter. The time required for the replication was four minutes and fifty-five seconds from the four 96 well plates to a 384 well plate meanwhile the required time with well experienced hand labor was three minutes thirty-five seconds. The gridding operation of clone could not be done by hand labor and the required time with robot system for the gridding on the membrance filter with the control program 5$\times$5: 1 copy and 384 gridding pins was twenty minutes and twenty-five seconds. The efficiency of the sterilization was considered to be satisfactory since no growth of fungi was found around the area of replication in the membrane filter.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.474-479
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• 2015

In this study, five different Gochujang (a traditional Korean sauce prepared using fermented red pepper paste) sauces were heated at $100^{\circ}C$ for 5 min using a continuous ohmic heating system. Ohmic heating yielded greater reduction in microbial counts (90-95% reduction) than did conventional heating (65-75% reduction). The sterilization effect of the continuous ohmic heater increased with increasing sample flow rate and decreasing Reynolds number inside the pipe. Low-viscosity samples had higher electrical conductivity and were better suited for ohmic heating than were high-viscosity samples. The color and texture were also satisfactorily maintained after ohmic heating. Compared with conventional heating, ohmic heating provided rapid and uniform heating, which is more suitable for aseptic thermal processing of viscous foods.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.519-526
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• 2021

Background: This study aimed to investigate the effect of cold plasma treatment on the improvement of seed germination and surface sterilization of ginseng seeds. Methods: Dehisced ginseng (Panax ginseng) seeds were exposed to dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma operated in argon (Ar) or an argon/oxygen mixture (Ar/O₂), and the resulting germination and surface sterilization were compared with those of an untreated control group. Bacterial and fungal detection assays were performed for plasma-treated ginseng seeds after serial dilution of surface-washed suspensions. The microbial colonies (fungi and bacteria) were classified according to their phenotypical morphologies and identified by molecular analysis. Furthermore, the effect of cold plasma treatment on the in vitro antifungal activity and suppression of Cylindrocarpon destructans in 4-year-old ginseng root discs was investigated. Results: Seeds treated with plasma in Ar or Ar/O₂ exhibited a higher germination rate (%) compared with the untreated controls. Furthermore, the plasma treatment exhibited bactericidal and fungicidal effects on the seed surface, and the latter effect was stronger than the former. In addition, plasma treatment exhibited in vitro antifungal activity against C. destructans and reduced the disease severity (%) of root rot in 4-year-old ginseng root discs. The results demonstrate the stimulatory effect of plasma treatment on seed germination, surface sterilization, and root rot disease suppression in ginseng. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the cold plasma treatment can suppress the microbial community on the seed surface root rot in ginseng.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.380-381
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• 2006

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.449-456
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• 2003

A robot system was developed to pick desired colony. This robot system consisted of an image acquisition process which acquires the image information of colony, an illumination device which irradiates the object once when it gets the image of it, a picking head, a replicating head, a bed for fixing well-plates, and a sterilization device of sterilizing pin stained with colony. Picking pins were washed in an ultrasonic wave washing for takes ten seconds. Picking pins were dipped for sterilizing in alcohol for ten seconds. The time for resterilizing picking pins in a heater was five seconds. This performance test resulted 100% success rate for both the colony picking and the colony replication process. Considering the procedure in which 8 pins were smeared by colony, picked on a well plate, and sterilized as one cycle, the system could carry out one cycle in 110 seconds. It took about 138 minutes to pick around 600 colonies.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.3
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• pp.87-94
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• 1983

Heating characteristics of red pepper paste packed in report pouches of various thicknesses and their storage stability were investigated to determine the adequate processing conditions that good bacteriological safty and minimal quality changes could be obtained, when sterilized by using a steam-air system retort. A heat penetration into pouch-packed red pepper paste was carried out through by a conductive heat transfer, indicating a simple logarithmic heating curve, and the smaller thickness revealed the higher heat penetration rate, suggesting the possibility of high temperature-short time sterilization of red pepper paste. The processing conditions with Fo-value of 4.5 or higher were sufficient for keeping up bacterial safty, but based on C-value, better quality retention was obtained at pouch thickness of 15mm under the processing temperature of $120^{\circ}C$. Subsequent storage study revealed that the red pepper paste packed in 15mm and processed at $120^{\circ}C$ with Fo=4.5 could be held without any spoilage and overall acceptance change, when stored for 6 months at room temperature under the relative humidity of 70%. After 3 months storage in $38^{\circ}C$ under saturation humidity, overall acceptance of red pepper paste were judged not to be maintainable on the acceptable level, but it may be suggested that above the results could be kept up a desirable quality without any remarkable deterioration.