• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.1785-1791
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• 2010

This paper describes a separable microfluidic device fabricated with PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) and glass. The device is used for sample preparation involving cell lysis and the DNA purification process. The cell lysis was performed for 2 min at $80^{\circ}C$ in a serpentine-type microreactor ($20 {\mu}l$) using a Au microheater that was integrated with a thermal microsensor on a glass substrate. The DNA that was mixed with other residual products during the cell lysis process was then filtered through a new filtration system composed of microbeads (diameter: $50 {\mu}m$) and PDMS pillars. Since the entire process (sample loading, cell lysis reaction, DNA purification, and sample extraction) was performed within 5 min in a microchip, we could reduce the sample preparation time in comparison with that for the conventional methods used in biochemistry laboratories. Finally, we verified the performance of the sample preparation chip by conducting PCR (polymerase chain reaction) analysis of the chip product.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.392-399
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• 2020

Background: Surgical treatment of empyema thoracis in patients with chronic kidney disease is challenging, and few studies in the literature have evaluated this issue. In this study, we aim to report the surgical outcomes of empyema and to analyze factors predicting perioperative mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease. Methods: This retrospective study included data from 34 patients with chronic kidney disease (estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 ㎡ for 3 or more months) who underwent surgery for empyema between 2012 and 2020. An analysis of demographic characteristics and perioperative variables, including complications, was carried out. Postoperative mortality was the primary outcome measure. Results: Patients' age ranged from 20 to 74 years with a 29-to-5 male-female ratio. The majority (n=19, 55.9%) of patients were in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring maintenance hemodialysis. The mean operative time was 304 minutes and the mean intraoperative blood loss was 562 mL. Postoperative morbidity was observed in 70.5% of patients (n=24). In the subgroup analysis, higher values for operative time, blood loss, intensive care unit stay, and complications were found in ESRD patients. The mortality rate was 38.2% (n=13). In the univariate and multivariate analyses, poor performance status (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group >2) (p=0.03), ESRD (p=0.02), and late referral (>8 weeks) (p<0.001) significantly affected mortality. Conclusion: ESRD, late referral, and poor functional status were poor prognostic factors predicting postoperative mortality. The decision of surgery should be cautiously assessed given the very high risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality in these patients.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.97-109
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• 2020

Membrane fouling is the main drawback of membrane technology. Frequent membrane cleaning and membrane replacement are, therefore, required to reduce membrane fouling that causes permeate flux reduction, lower rejection, or higher operating pressure. Studies have proved that the alteration of membrane properties is the key controlling factor in lessening membrane fouling. Among stimuli-responsive membranes, thermo-responsive membrane is the most popular, with a drastic phase transition and swelling-shrinking behavior caused by the temperature change. In this study, the thermo-responsive ability of two commercial membranes, PolyCera® Titan membrane and PolyCera® Hydro membrane, at different temperatures was studied on the antifouling function of the membrane in palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment. The evaluation of the membrane's thermo-responsive ability was done through three cycles of adsorption (fouling) and desorption (defouling) processes in a membrane filtration process. The experimental result depicted that PolyCera® Hydro membrane had a higher membrane permeability of 67.869 L/㎡.h.bar than PolyCera® Titan membrane at 46.011 L/㎡.h.bar. However, the high membrane permeability of PolyCera® Hydro membrane was compensated with low removal efficiency. PolyCera® Titan membrane with a smaller mean pore size had better rejection performance than PolyCera® Hydro membrane for all tested parameters. On the other hand, PolyCera® Titan membrane had a better hydrodynamic cleaning efficiency than PolyCera® Hydro membrane regardless of the hydrodynamic cleaning temperature. The best hydrodynamic cleaning performed by PolyCera® Titan membrane was at 35℃ with the flux recovery ratio (FRR) of 99.17 ± 1.43%. The excellent thermo-responsive properties of the PolyCera® Titan membrane could eventually reduce the frequency of membrane replacement and lessen the use of chemicals for membrane cleaning. This outstanding exploration helps to provide a solution to the chemical industry and membrane technology bottleneck, which is the membrane fouling, thus reducing the operating cost incurred by the membrane fouling.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.1216-1223
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• 2016

The aim of this study was to isolate antioxidant peptides from an enzymatic hydrolysate of Spirulina platensis. A novel antioxidant peptide was obtained by ultrafiltration, gel filtration chromatography, and reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, with the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay used to measure the antioxidant activity, and the sequence was determined to be Pro-Asn-Asn (343.15 Da) by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. This peptide was synthesized to confirm its antioxidant properties, and it exhibited 81.44 ± 0.43% DPPH scavenging activity at 100 μg/ml, which was similar to that of glutathione (82.63 ± 0.56%). Furthermore, the superoxide anion and hydroxyl free-radical scavenging activities and the SOD activity of the peptide were 47.84 ± 0.49%, 54.01 ± 0.82%, and 12.55 ± 0.75%, respectively, at 10 mg/ml. These results indicate that S. platensis is a good source of antioxidant peptides, and that its hydrolysate may have important applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.567-575
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• 2017

It is not cost effective to raise the density of catch basins in preparation for heavy rainfall in terms of construction and maintenance. Our researchers have developed the new catch basin for increasing interception capacity of runoff with internal filtration structure. To compare interception capacity of an existing catch basin with the invented catch basin, a hydraulic experiment device with 4% of road gradients and 0.2% of road gradients was constructed. For runoff conditions of 4.4 l/s, 6.7 l/s and 10.4 l/s, capability of runoff and separation capability of debris (sand and leaves) were evaluated. As the main experimental results, the effectiveness of the developed catch basin has been verified with an increase in interception rate of approximately 22% for the runoff of 6.7 l/s as heavy rainfall. However, the results of invented catch basin showed only 4.5% of settlement rate of debris regarding sand. Therefore, the authors proposed an improved tilted screen structure additionally. After reviewing the performance of improved catch basin, application of the invented catch basin is expected to drain runoff effectively when it is applied to the faulty road drainage section.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.31-41
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• 2016

For sand and zeolite filter media in stormwater BMPs, media breakage effects on infiltration were investigated. Compaction effort and infiltration force were mainly examined for breakage sources. The 1-D column infiltration tests for un-compacted and compacted media filters were conducted to investigate the breakage effect on infiltration. As a result, the following findings were deduced: 1) particle breakage due to filtration forces was found to be relatively minimal; 2) un-compacted media had lesser amount of crushed particles and permeability fluctuations compared to compacted media; 3) even without the presence of suspended solids in the influent, reduction in permeability was found, which resulted from rearrangement and re-entrainment of media particle itself; 4) only media particle breakage resistance is considered, sand was revealed to have better performance compared to zeolite media.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.207-212
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• 2008

Pesticide residues play several key roles as environmental and food pollutants and it is crucial to develop a method for the rapid determination of pesticide residues in environments. In this study, a simple, effective, and sensitive method has been developed for the quantitative analysis of methoxyfenozide in water and soil when kept under laboratory conditions. The content of methoxyfenozide in water and soil was analyzed by first purifying the compound through liquid-liquid extraction and partitioning followed by florisil gel filtration. Upon the completion of the purification step the residual levels were monitored through high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) using a UV absorbance detector. The average recoveries of methoxyfenozide from three replicates spiked at two different concentrations and were ranged from 83.5% to 110.3% and from 98.1% to 102.8% in water and soil, respectively. The limits of detection(LODs) and limits of quantitation(LOQs) were 0.004 vs. 0.012 ppm and 0.008 vs. 0.024 ppm, respectively. The method was successfully applied to evaluate the behavioral fate of a 21% wettable powder(WP) methoxyfenozide throughout the course of 14 days. A first-order model was found to accurately fit the dissipation of methoxyfenozide in water with and a $DT_{50}$ value of 3.03 days was calculated from the fit. This result indicates that methoxyfenozide dissipates rapidly and does not accumulate in water.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.678-686
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• 2006

The feasibility of the high-hydrophilic biofilter was examined for application in rural wastewater treatment in Korea. The intermittent trickling biofiter was developed for wastewater treatment of media and examined instantaneous wetting water and immersional wetting water. Melamin foam absorbed 120 times it's weight in water and maintained wetting status than other materials. These characteristics are improvement for application in rural areas showing large variance of amount of influent. The biofilter process was effective in treating organic pollutants; mean removal efficiencies of $BOD_5$ and TSS were above 80%. The average SS concentrations of effluent was showed below $10mg/L^{-1}$ and meet guidelines in special regions, however, the average concentration of $BOD_5$ was about $20mg/L^{-1}$. The removals of T-N and T-P were relatively less effective and removal efficiencies were below 40%. It might meet the guidelines for T-P because of low levels of influent T-P concentration. However, the T-N concentration were too high and further treatment is required. The effluent concentration of $NH_4-N$ showed a significant reduction rate about 43.8%, but part of $NH_4-N$ was transformed to $NO_2-N$ and $NO_3-N$ inside the biofilter through nitrification process. The effluent concentration of org-P was removed about 78.8% of influent concentration by filtration. Considering stable performance and effective removal of pollutant in wastewater, low maintenance, and cost-effectiveness, the hydrophilic biofilter system was thought to be an effective and feasible alternative for decentralized rural areas.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.143-155
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• 2013

Four membranes were used to separate Chlorella sp. from their culture medium in cross-flow microfiltration (MF) experiments: cellulose acetate (CA), cellulose nitrate (CN), polypropylene (PP) and polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF). It was found that the hydrophilic CA and CN membranes with a pore size of 1.2 ${\mu}m$ exhibited the best performances among all the membranes in terms of permeation flux. The hydrophobicity of each membrane material was determined by measuring the angle between the water (liquid) and membrane (solid). Contact angle measurements showed that deionized (DI) water had almost adsorbed onto the surfaces of the CA and CN membranes, which gave $0.00^{\circ}$ contact angle values. The PP and PVDF membranes were more hydrophobic, giving contact angle values of $95.97^{\circ}$ and $126.63^{\circ}$, respectively. Although the pure water flux increased with increasing pore diameter (0.8 < 1.2 < 3.0 ${\mu}m$) in hydrophilic CA and CN membranes, the best performance in term of filtration rate for filtering a microalgae suspension was attained by membranes with a pore size of 1.2 ${\mu}m$. The fouled membrane pore sizes and pore blocking were inspected using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). MF with large pore diameters was more sensitive to fouling that contributed to intermediate blocking, where the size of the membrane pores is almost equivalent to that of cells.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.499-515
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate membrane fouling caused by microalgal cells in submerged membrane systems consisting of polymeric and ceramic microfiltration membranes. In this study, one polymeric (flat-sheet, pore size: $0.2{\mu}m$) and two ceramic (flat-sheet, pore size: $0.2{\mu}m$ and cylindrical, pore size: $1{\mu}m$) membranes were used. Physical cleaning was performed with water and air to determine the potential for reversible and irreversible membrane fouling. The study results showed that substantial irreversible membrane fouling (after four filtration cycles, irreversible fouling degree 27% (cleaning with water) and 38% (cleaning with air)) occurs in the polymeric membrane. In cleaning studies performed using water and air on ceramic membranes, it was observed that compressed air was more effective (recovery rate: 87-91%) for membrane cleaning. The harvesting performance of the membranes was examined through critical flux experiments. The critical flux values for polymeric membrane with a pore size of $0.20{\mu}m$ and ceramic membranes with a pore size of $0.20{\mu}m$ and $1{\mu}m$ were ${\leq}95L/m^2hour$, ${\leq}70L/m^2hour$ and ${\leq}55L/m^2hour$, respectively. It was determined that critical flux varies depending on the membrane material and the pore size. To obtain more information on membrane fouling caused by microalgal cells, the characterization of the fouled polymeric membrane was performed. This study concluded that ceramic membranes with a pore size of $0.2-1{\mu}m$ in the submerged membrane system could be efficiently used for microalgae harvesting by cleaning the membrane with compressed air at regular intervals.