• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1764-1768
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• 2010

In this study, the prevalence of antibiotic resistance was examined among 74 Staphylococcus pseudintermedius strains recently isolated from clinical cases of canine pyoderma and otitis externa at the veterinary teaching hospital at Konkuk University, Korea. Bacterial resistance to the nine commonly used antibiotics was evaluated by a standard disk diffusion technique based on the guidelines of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. The results demonstrated that most S. pseudintermedius isolates were resistant to penicillin (95.9%) or tetracycline (91.9%), but highly susceptible to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (90.5%). Among the 74 isolates, 13 mecA-positive and methicillin-resistant S. pseudintermedius (MRSP) strains were identified, displaying a high level of resistance (84.6-100%) to each of the individual antibiotics evaluated, with the exception of amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (46.2% resistance). Notably, all of the MRSP isolates exhibited simultaneous resistance to four or more different antibiotics, indicating that they are multiple drug resistant (MDR) strains. Taken together, these results imply that more careful selection or prescription of antibiotics for canine pyoderma and otitis externa should be required for reducing the emergence and/or spread of MDR strains, especially MDR-MRSP isolates, in veterinary pet clinics in Korea.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.71-77
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• 2024

Hydrogen has emerged as an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. However, the utilization of hydrogen requires high-pressure compression, storage, and transportation, which poses challenges to the durability of compressor components, particularly the diaphragm. This study aims to improve the durability of 304 stainless steel diaphragms in hydrogen compressors by optimizing their surface roughness and corrosion resistance through wet etching. The specimens were prepared by immersing 304 stainless steel in a mixture of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide, followed by etching in hydrochloric acid for various durations. The surface morphology, roughness, and wettability of the etched specimens were characterized using optical microscopy, surface profilometry, and water contact angle measurements. The friction and wear characteristics were evaluated using reciprocating sliding tests. The results showed that increasing the etching time led to the development of micro/nanostructures on the surface, thereby increasing surface roughness and hydrophilicity. The friction coefficient initially decreased with increasing surface roughness owing to the reduced contact area but increased during long-term wear owing to the destruction and delamination of surface protrusions. HCl-30M exhibited the lowest average friction coefficient and a balance between the surface roughness and oxide film formation, resulting in improved wear resistance. These findings highlight the importance of controlling the surface roughness and oxide film formation through etching optimization to obtain a uniform and wear-resistant surface for the enhanced durability of 304 stainless steel diaphragms in hydrogen compressors.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.11-24
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• 1984

Shigella remains to be an important enteric pathogen in this country for the present. Moreover, most of the isolates have become multiple resistant to various antibiotics which used to be drugs of choice for shigellosis. This study was made as an attempt to assess the present stage of antibiotic resistance and the incidence and transferability of R factors of Shigella. A total of one hundred and seventeen strains of Shigella isolated from patients in Seoul and provincial area between 1982 and 1983 were tested for their resistant to antimicrobial agents and transmission of R-plasmid. Antibiotic susceptibilities were determined by an agar dilution method. Muller hinton agar were used for the assay of drug resistance and tryptic soy broth were used for propagating medium for conjugation. Shigella isolated found to be one or more antibiotics were considered potential donor of R-plasmid. The following results were obtained. 1. Among 117 strains of Shigella isolated, 111 strains(94.9%) were found to be resistant to one or more drugs tested and 97.3% of these resistant strains were multiply resistant, indicating the multiply resistant strains were more than the single resistant strains. Only six strains were susceptible to all drugs tested. 2. Among 117 strains of Shigella isolated, 107 strains(91.5%) were resistant to Tetracyclin(Tc), 106 strains(90.6%) to Chloramphenicol(Cp) and Streptomycin(Sm), 97 strains(82.9%) to Ampicillin(Ap), 68 strains(58.1%) to Cephaloridine(Cr), 10 strains(8.5%) to Nalidixic acid(Na), 5 strains(4.3%) to Kanamycin(Km) and 2 strains(1.7%) to Rifampicin. No strain was resisfant to Amikacin(Ak) and Gentamicin(Gm). 3. All drug-resistant Shigella strains, except three, were multiply resistant to two or more drugs. Fifty eight strains were resistant to five drugs, followed by 26 strains resistant to dour drugs, 12 strains resistant to three drugs and 11 strains resistant to six drugs. 4. The 73% of multiply drug-resistant Shigella transferred their resistance to E. coli by conjugation and the resistance was considered to be mediated by R-plasmid. Resistance to Nalidixic acid and Rifampicin were not transferred by conjugation to recipient. As for the transferability of resistance to each seperate drug, Ap resistance was transferred with 73.2% frequence and Cm and Tc resistance were transferred with approximately 50-60% frequence whereas Sm and Cr resistance were transferred in 19.1-21.4% The other four drugs resistant failed to transfer their resistance to recipient. 5. As for the incidence and transferability of resistance to each seperate drug, the strains resistant to Tc and Cm were encountered most frequently with the rate of 91-92%, whereas transfer of Tc and Cm were low, 51-52%. The incidence of Sm resistance was very high(90.6%) but transferability of drugs resistance was much lower(25.4%). Though the incidence of Km reristance was much lower(4.3%) transferability of Km resistance was considerably higher(60%). 6. The greater the multiplicity of resistance, the greater was the likelihood that part of all of the resistance markers would be transferable.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.513-520
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• 2011

In order to develop a new starter culture for fermented milk, Lactobacillus fermentum LC272 was isolated from raw milk and its physiological characteristics were investigated. The vitamin $K_2$ concentration of L. fermentum LC272 was $184.94{\mu}g/L$ in Rogosa medium and $63.93{\mu}g/L$ in the reconstituted skim milk. The optimum growth temperature for L. fermentum LC272 was determined to be $40^{\circ}C$ and it took 24 h for the pH to reach 5.2 under this condition. L. fermentum LC272 was more sensitive to rifampicin relative of the other 15 different antibiotics tested, and showed most resistance to streptomycin. L. fermentum LC272 showed higher activities to leucine arylamidase and acid phosphatase. It was comparatively tolerant to bile juice and acid and displayed high resistance against Salmonella Typhimurium and Staphylococcus aureus with rates of 82.9 and 86.3% respectively. These results demonstrated that L. fermentum LC272 could be an excellent starter culture for fermented milk with high levels of vitamin $K_2$ production.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.957-965
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• 2010

To develop a new starter culture for fermented milk, Streptococcus macedonicus LC743 was isolated from raw milk and its physiological characteristics were investigated. S. macedonicus LC743 showed good immunomodulating activity compared to the index LAB starters tested. The optimum growth temperature of S. macedonicus LC743 was $40^{\circ}C$, and it took 18 h to reach pH 4.34 under these conditions. S. macedonicus LC743 showed higher sensitivity to novobiocin in a comparison of 15 different antibiotics and showed the highest resistance to gentamycin. It also showed higher activities of leucine arylamidase and acid phosphatase. Moreover, it was comparatively tolerant to bile juice and acid and displayed high resistance to Escherichia coli, Salmonella Typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus with rates of 80.0%, 68.42%, and 81.54% respectively. These results demonstrate that S. macedonicus LC743 could be an excellent starter culture for fermented milk with a high level of immunomodulating activity.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2019

Ni-benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid based metal organic frameworks were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method and thermally treated at various temperature. The electrochemical performance of composites was investigated using cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Among all prepared composites, the samples annealed at $250^{\circ}C$ showed the highest capacitance with a low resistance, and high cycle stability. It was possible to obtain the low electrical resistance and high electric conductivity of the electrode by improved microstructure and morphology after the thermal annealing at $250^{\circ}C$. The samples annealed at $250^{\circ}C$ also displayed the maximum specific capacitance with a value of $953Fg^{-1}$ at a current density of $0.66A/g^{-1}$ in 6 M KOH electrolyte. Moreover, a 86.4% of the initial specific capacitance of the composite was maintained after 3,000 times charge-discharge cycle tests. Based on these properties, it can be concluded that the composite could be applied as potential supercapacitor electrode materials.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2006

A 4,971 bp chromosomal DNA fragment containing the pqrA, paraquat resistance gene, was cloned from Ochrobactrum anthropi JW-2, and the complete nucleotide sequence was determined. Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the fragment revealed the presence of 4 complete ORFs (orf2, pqrA, orf3, orf4) and two incomplete ORFs(orf1, orf5). Orf1, pqrA, orf4 and orf5 exists at the direct strand but orf2 and orf3 exists at the reverse complementary strand. Orf1 which of incomplete sequences without start codon shares homology with ATP binding region of the response regulator receiver. Orf2 shares high homology with members of the tetR family of transcriptional repressor which have a helix-turn-helix (H-T-H) motif. Therefore, the orf2 is predicted as a transcriptional repressor of pqrA and is designated as pqrR2. Orf3 shares high homology with the members of the lysR family acting as a transcriptional activator which have both of a H-T-H motif at the N-terminal region and substrate binding domain at the C-terminal region. Therefore, the orf3 is predicted as a transcriptional activator of pqrA and is designated as pqrR1. Orf4 shows homology with the periplasmic substrate-binding protein of amino acid ABC transporter. Orf5 which of incomplete sequences without stop codon revealed the homology with the permeases protein of amino acid ABC transporter.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.318-318
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• 2012

A graphene layer is most important materials in resent year to enhance the electrical properties of semiconductor device due to high mobility, flexibility, strong mechanical resistance and transparency[1,2]. The resistance switching memory with the graphene layer have been reported for next generation nonvolatile memory device[3,4]. Also, the graphene layer is able to improve the electrical properties of memory device because of the high mobility and current density. In this study, the resistance switching memory device with metal-oxide nano-particles embedded in polyimide layer on the graphene mono-layer were fabricated. At first, the graphene layer was deposited $SiO_2$/Si substrate by using chemical vapor deposition. Then, a biphenyl-tetracarboxylic dianhydride-phenylene diamine poly-amic-acid was spin coated on the deposited metal layer on the graphene mono-layer. Then the samples were cured at $400^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour in $N_2$ atmosphere after drying at $135^{\circ}C$ for 30 min through rapid thermal annealing. The deposition of aluminum layer with thickness of 200 nm was done by a thermal evaporator. The electrical properties of device were measured at room temperature using an HP4156a precision semiconductor parameter analyzer and an Agilent 81101A pulse generator. We will discuss the switching mechanism of memory device with metal-oxide nano-particles on the graphene mono-layer.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.223-232
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• 2014

To make metalized wood composites of 10 different korean wood species, it was tested by Low temperature melting Bi-Sn alloy injection method at high temperature and high pressure condition. Metalized wood composite of each wood species had light ash color, but still maintained its own natural wood grain and wood figures. It was evaluated on coating properties. Furthermore, it also was check on effect of coating as like a changes of main color, wood grain and wood figures. The results of test were following as; a coating properties as like a cold resistance, heat resistance, acid resistance, alkali resistance, durability of abrasion, and cross-cut test was proper on the conditions of the KS standard. And, In aspect of color changes, the metalized wood composites of 10 different korean wood species had a light ash color, but still maintained its own natural wood grain and wood figures. Also, the more weight per gain of alloy is, the more grey background of metalized wood composite is.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.481-488
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• 1996

In spite of diverse applications of chitin derivatives, commercial use of chitin has been limited due to highly resistance to chemicals and the absense of proper solvents. One of methods to reduce such high resistance to chemicals is to make microcrystalline chitin(MCC) by hydrolysis of chitin. Presently, MCC is produced mainly by using high concentration of acid, but this treatment requires an extensive posttreatment to remove or recover acid. An alternative process for MCC production was developed by using dilute hydrochloric acid with ultrasound and hydrogen peroxide. The major parameters for this process were found to be acid concentration, swelling time and temperature, and irradiation time and frequency of ultrasound. The effects of these parameters on MCC molecular weight were investigated. The molecular weight of MCC produced at a typical condition was around 30,000 which was approximately 1/8 of that of chitin and approached to a constant value. This phenomenon was explained by introducing the model of molecular arrangement of cellulose. SEM analysis showed that both chitin and MCC had a fibrous shaped morphology and the fibril size of MCC was much smaller than that of chitin.