• Title/Summary/Keyword: Various Contamination

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Analysis of Microbiological Contamination in Cultivation and Distribution Stage of Melon

  • Park, Kyeong-Hun;Yun, Hye-Jeong;Kim, Won-Il;Kang, Jun-Won;Millner, Patricia D.;Micallef, Shirley A.;Kim, Byeong-Seok
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.46 no.6
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    • pp.615-622
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    • 2013
  • The purpose of this study was to evaluate microbial contamination of melons in Korea. A total of 123 samples including melon fruits, leaves, seeds, soils, and irrigation water were collected from farms and markets to detect total aerobic bacteria, coliform, Escherichia coli, and pathogenic bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus. Samples were collected from Iksan and Nonsan farms to monitor bacterial levels on pre-market melons. The total aerobic and coliform bacteria on melon cultivation were between 0.43 and 6.65 log CFU $g^{-1}$, and 0.67 and 2.91 log CFU $g^{-1}$, respectively. Bacillus cereus, a fecal coliform, was detected in soils and melon leaves from Iksan farm at 2.95, 0.73 log CFU $g^{-1}$, respectively, and in soils from Nonsan farm at 3.16 log CFU $g^{-1}$. Market melon samples were collected to assay bacterial load on melon being sold to consumers. The contamination levels of total aerobic bacteria in agricultural markets, big-box retailers, and traditional markets were 4.82, 3.94, 3.99 log CFU $g^{-1}$, respectively. The numbers of coliform in melon on the markets ranged from 0.09 to 0.49 log CFU $g^{-1}$. Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus were not detected in any samples. The count of total aerobic bacteria on melon seeds ranged from 0.33 to 3.34 log CFU $g^{-1}$. This study found that irrigation water, soil, manure and various farm work activities including post-harvest processes were latent sources of microbial contamination. These results suggest that hygienic management and monitoring of soil, water, and agricultural material should be performed to reduce microbial contamination in melon production.

Contamination of operator's clothing by aerosols during scaling (스케일링 시 에어로졸에 의한 술자의 의복 오염도)

  • Kang, Kyung-Hee;Kim, Ye-Jin;Min, Ji-Yeon;Park, Seul-Gi;Woo, Ju-Hee;Goong, Haw-Soo
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Dental Administration
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.31-37
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    • 2017
  • Recently interest in infection control is increasing in hospitalsnfection control has become more important in the overall health care practiceental hospital also requires thorough infection control. There are various kinds of vectormedical clothing. Contaminated clothing of a hospital staff can be a vector of nosocomial infecton. actual case of nosocomial infecton caused by contaminated medical clothing, nursing students were measuring contamination levels of uniforms and pathogenic microorganism wdetected in front of the uniform and pocket. There is also a high risk of exposure to contamination in the dental hospital. We conducted a study to enhance awareness about infection and proper clothing management by comparing before and after contamination of clothing caused by aerosols produced during scaling. Subjects were scaling operators' uniforms in the department of dental hygiene, K University located in Daejeon. Before scaling, the uniform was sterilized by autoclavecaling was performed times in the same place (an average of 60 minutes per person, a total of 180 minutes). ive parts of the uniform (sleeves, chest, belly, thigh, edge of pants) contracted Rodak-plate for 15 seconds. After incubating the contacted Rodak-plate at 37℃ incubator, contamination levels by measuring the number of colonies. As a result, all parts increased number of colonies. ontamination order chestedge of pants thigh belly sleeves. Increase rate of colonies was also high in the order chest edge of pants thigh belly sleeves. This study showed seriousness of clothing contaminationcaused by aerol produced during scalingcontamination of clothing can be a path to nosocomial infecton. According to th study, infection control for clothing as well as dental instruments should be implemented and thorough infection control training needed for dental staff. In further researches, practical infection prevention supplementing clothing management method.

A Review on Solution Plans for Preventing Environmental Contamination as the Trend Changes of Cryptocurrency (암호화폐의 트랜드 변화에 따른 환경오염 방지 해결방안에 대한 고찰)

  • Kim, Jeong-hun;Song, Sae-hee;Ko, Lim-hwan;Nam, Hak-hyun;Jang, Jae-hyuck;Jung, Hoi-yun;Choi, Hyuck-jae
    • Journal of Venture Innovation
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.91-106
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    • 2022
  • Cryptocurrency, stood out the sharp cost rising of Bitcoin has been spotlighted by means of the solution for stagflation because it is decentralized with an existing currency differently. Especially getting into 4th industrial revolution, technologies using block chain and internet of things have been used in the many fields, and the power of influence is also widespread. Nevertheless like a remark of Elon Musk of Tesla CEO, the problems of environmental contamination for cryptocurrency have been pointed out continuously and the most representative of them is an enormous electric usage as the use of fossil fuels. Also the amount generated of carbon dioxide result in the acceleration of global warming mainly based on the climate changes of earth if the existing mining method is continued. On the other hand, review researches have been conducted restrictively as the connection with environmental contamination as the mining of cryptocurrency. In this study, it intended to review problems for environmental contamination as the diversification of ecological system of cryptocurrency concretely. Upon investigation existing prior documents on the putting recent data first, the mining of cryptocurrency has affected on the environmental contamination conflicting with carbon neutrality as increasement of the electric usage and electronic wastes. And POS method without the mining process appeared, but it had a demerit collapsing a decentralization and then we met turning point on appearing various environmental-friendly cryptocurrency. Finally the appearance of cryptocurrency using new renewable energy acted on the opportunity of the usage maximization of energy storage apparatus and the birth of national government intervention. Based on these results, we mention clearly that hereafter cryptocurrency will regress if not go abreast the value of currency as well as environmental approach.

A Study on the Ultraviolet Aging Characteristics of Outdoor Polymeric Insulating Materials (옥외용 고분자 절연재료의 자외선 열화특성 연구)

  • Kim, Yeong-Seong;Jeong, Sun-Ok
    • Korean Journal of Materials Research
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    • v.9 no.4
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    • pp.409-413
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    • 1999
  • Recently, the polymeric insulators have been accepted in several countries for the outdoor high voltage applications. In comparison with the conventional porcelain, polymeric insulators offer various advantages such as light weight, superior vandal resistance and better contamination performance. The outdoor polymeric insulating materials such as silicone rubber, ethylene propylene diene monomer(EPDM), ethylene vinyl acetate(EVA) and epoxy are aged such as silicone rubber, ethylene propylene diene monomer(EPDM), ethylene vinyl acetate(EVA) and epoxy are aged under the various natural environment with the long-term performance in outdoor. In this paper, the effects of UV-under the various natural environment with the long-term performance in outdoor. In this paper, the effects of UV-ray on the surface of silicone rubber were investigated by using the weather-Ometer. The accelerated aging stresses were simulated by UV radiation, high temperature and humidity as well as water spray. These aging characteristics were examined through contact angle measurements, tracking resistance test, FT-IR and SEM/EDS analysis. The experimental results showed that tracking resistance decreases with increase in the UV-ray irradiation period. But the surface of silicone rubber kept hydrophobicity. It is found that the inorganic filler such as)$ Al(OH_3$ improves tracking resistance and the $Tio_2$is very effective in preventing degradation of silicone rubber surface from UV-ray.

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First-principles Study of MoS2 Nanostructures with Various Adsorbates

  • Cha, Janghwan;Sung, Dongchul;Hong, Suklyun
    • Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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    • 2014.02a
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    • pp.210.2-210.2
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    • 2014
  • Recently, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanostructures have been investigated for applications of lithium-ion batteries, solar cell, and gas sensors. In this regard, we have studied atomic and electronic properties of MoS2 nanostructures with adsorbed atoms and molecules using density functional theory calculations. Our calculations reveal that the several atoms such as H, C, N, and F are chemically bound to several sites on the two-dimensional (2D) MoS2 surface. On the other hand, various contamination molecules such as CO, CO2, NO, NO2, and NH3 do not bind to the surface. Next, adsorption of various molecules on the one-dimensional (1D) armchair MoS2 nanoribbon is investigated. Contrary to the case of 2D MoS2 monolayer surface, some molecules (CO and NO) are bound well to the edge of the MoS2 nanoribbon. We find that the molecular states due to adsorption are located near the Fermi level, which makes the band gap narrower. Therefore, we suggest that monolayer MoS2 nanoribbons be used as the gas sensors or detectors.

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Fate and Transport of Mercury in Environmental Media and Human Exposure

  • Kim, Moon-Kyung;Zoh, Kyung-Duk
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.45 no.6
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    • pp.335-343
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    • 2012
  • Mercury is emitted to the atmosphere from various natural and anthropogenic sources, and degrades with difficulty in the environment. Mercury exists as various species, mainly elemental ($Hg^0$) and divalent ($Hg^{2+}$) mercury depending on its oxidation states in air and water. Mercury emitted to the atmosphere can be deposited into aqueous environments by wet and dry depositions, and some can be re-emitted into the atmosphere. The deposited mercury species, mainly $Hg^{2+}$, can react with various organic compounds in water and sediment by biotic reactions mediated by sulfur-reducing bacteria, and abiotic reactions mediated by sunlight photolysis, resulting in conversion into organic mercury such as methylmercury (MeHg). MeHg can be bioaccumulated through the food web in the ecosystem, finally exposing humans who consume fish. For a better understanding of how humans are exposed to mercury in the environment, this review paper summarizes the mechanisms of emission, fate and transport, speciation chemistry, bioaccumulation, levels of contamination in environmental media, and finally exposure assessment of humans.

Removal of safranin from aqueous solution through liquid emulsion membrane

  • Lohiya, Roshni;Goyal, Arihant;Dohare, Rajeev Kumar;Agarwal, Madhu;Upadhyaya, Sushant
    • Membrane and Water Treatment
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    • v.10 no.5
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    • pp.373-379
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    • 2019
  • One of the real issues of the recent years is water contamination because of harmful synthetic dyes. Liquid Membranes (LM) resemble a promising alternative to the current separation processes, demonstrating various points of interest as far as effectiveness, selectivity, and operational expenses. The improvement of various Liquid Membranes designs has been a matter of examination by few researchers, particularly for the expulsion of dyes from aqueous solutions. The choice of organic surfactants plays an essential role in the efficiency of the dye removal. In LM design, the most significant step towards productivity is the decision of the surfactant type and its concentration. Liquid emulsion membrane (LEM) was used to remove safranin from aqueous solutions in which the emulsion was made with the help of D2EHPA as carrier, kerosene was used as a diluent and Span 80 (Sorbiton monooleate) was used as an emulsifying agent or surfactant. Various sorts of internal stages were utilized, to be specific sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxide. The impact of parameters influencing extraction efficiency such as pH of feed solution, concentrations of surfactant and emulsifying agent in membrane phase, volume ratio of internal phase to membrane phase, internal phase concentration, agitation speed and time of extraction were analyzed.

In the Treatment I-131, the Significance of the Research that the Patient's Discharge Dose and Treatment Ward can Affect a Patient's Kidney Function on the Significance of Various Factors (I-131 치료시 환자의 신장기능과 다양한 요인으로 의한 퇴원선량 및 치료병실 오염도의 유의성에 관한 연구)

  • Im, Kwang Seok;Choi, Hak Gi;Lee, Gi Hyun
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.17 no.1
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    • pp.62-66
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    • 2013
  • Purpose: I-131 is a radioisotope widely used for thyroid gland treatments. The physical half life is 8.01 and characterized by emitting beta and gamma rays which is used in clinical practice for the purpose of acquiring treatment and images. In order to reduce the recurrence rate after surgery in high-risk thyroid cancer patients, the remaining thyroid tissue is either removed or the I-131 is used for treatment during relapse. In cases of using a high dosage of radioactive iodine requiring hospitalization, the patient is administered dosage in the hospital isolation ward over a certain period of time preventing I-131 exposure to others. By checking the radiation amount emitted from patients before discharge, the patients are discharged after checking whether they meet the legal standards (50 uSv/h). After patients are discharged from the hospital, the contamination level is checked in many parts of the ward before the next patients are hospitalized and when necessary, decontamination operations are performed. It is expected that there is exposure to radiation when measuring the ward contamination level and dose check emitted from patients at the time of discharge whereby the radiation exposure by health workers that come from the patients in this process is the main factor. This study analyzed the correlation between discharge dose of patients and ward contamination level through a variety of factors such as renal functions, gender, age, dosage, etc.). Materials and Method: The study was conducted on 151 patients who received high-dosage radioactive iodine treatment at Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital during the period between 8/1/2011~5/31/2012 (Male: Female: 31:120, $47.5{\pm}11.9$, average dosage of $138{\pm}22.4$ mCi). As various factors expected to influence the patient discharge dose & ward contamination such as the beds, floors, bathroom floors, and washbasins, the patient renal function (GFR), age, gender, dosage, and the correlation between the expected Tg & Tg-Tb expected to reflect the remaining tissue in patients were analyzed. Results: In terms of the discharge dose and GFR, a low correlation was shown in the patient discharge dose as the GFR was higher (p < 0.0001). When comparing the group with a dosage of over 150mCi and the group with a lower dosage, the lower dosage group showed a significantly lower discharge dose ($24{\pm}10.4uSv/h$ vs $28.7{\pm}11.8uSv/h$, p<0.05). Age, gender, Tg, Tg-Tb did not show a significant relationship with discharge dose (p> 0.05). The contamination level in each spot of the treatment ward showed no significant relationship with GFR, Tg, Tg-Tb, age, gender, and dosage (p>0.05 ). Conclusion: This study says that discharge of the dose in the patient's body is low in GFR higher and Dosage 150mCi under lower. There was no case of contamination of the treatment ward, depending on the dose and renal association. This suggests that patients' lifestyles or be affected by a variety of other factors.

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Bacteriological Monitoring of Radiology Room Apparatus in the Department of Radiological Technology and Contamination on Hands of Radiological Technologists (영상의학과 촬영실 장비와 방사선사의 손 오염의 세균학적 모니터링)

  • Kim, Seon-Chil
    • Journal of radiological science and technology
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    • v.31 no.4
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    • pp.329-335
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    • 2008
  • Distribution of microorganisms were examined for the bucky tables in the radiology rooms of the department of radiological technology, the aprons, handles of various apparatus, handles of mobile radiological apparatus, and hands of the radiological technologists. As a result, relatively larger amounts of bacteria were found on the handles of the mobile radiological apparatus and the aprons. Among the isolated bacteria, Acinetobacter baumanni (7.3%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (6.7%), Staphylococcus aureus (3.9%), Serratia liquefaciens (1.7%), Enterobacter cloaceae (0.6%), Providenica rettgeri (0.6%) are known as the cause of nosocomial infection (hospital acquired infection). In addition, similar colonies were also found on the hands of the radiological technologists such as microorganisms of Klebsiella pneumoniae (8.4%), Staphylococcus aureus (6.6%), Yersinia enterocolotica (5.4%), Acinetobacter baumanni (4.2%), Enterobacter cloaceae (2.4%), Serratia liquefaciens (1.8%), Yersinia pseuotuberculosis (18%), Enterobacter sakazakii (1.2%), and Escherichia coli (0.6%). In particular, this result indicates clinical significance since Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli show strong pathogenicity. Therefore, a continuous education is essential for the radiological technologists to prevent the nosocomial infection.

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Chemical Ranking and Scoring Methodology for the Drinking and non-drinking Groundwater pollutants: CROWN (Chemical Ranking of Groundwater PollutaNts) (음용 및 비음용 지하수 우선관리대상 항목 선정기법: CROWN (Chemical Ranking of Groundwater PollutaNts))

  • An, Youn-Joo;Lee, Woo-Mi;Jeong, Seung-Woo
    • Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.16-25
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    • 2013
  • The Korean groundwater law regulates 20 groundwater contamination parameters, including 14 specific harmful substances. Expanding the number of groundwater quality standards are needed to cope with recent groundwater quality deterioration due to the use of various chemicals. Chemical ranking and scoring system (CRS) is a scientific tool to sort priority chemicals by considering exposure and toxicity potentials. In this study, we developed a CRS for scoring and ranking of possible groundwater pollutants and screened priority substances to be later considered in the Korean standard expansion. Chemical Ranking Of groundWater pollutaNts (CROWN) incorporates important parameters consisting of exposure potential, human and water ecotoxicity, interests, and certainty. Furthermore, CROWN additionally evaluated existence of other media standards to consider impacts by contamination of other media. The 197 substances that were common to 9 countries were selected first. CROWN evaluated and ranked each chemical, and finally suggested priority substances. Suggested priority substances were classified into two groups according to the groundwater use purposes: drinking and non-drinking. The priority substances were further classified into $1^{st}$ and $2^{nd}$ group priorities. The $1^{st}$ group consists of 75 substances, including the all the Korean groundwater standard parameters. CROWN will be used in selecting groundwater pollutants for possible inclusion in the Korean standard expansion.