• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.139-159
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• 2008

Geochemical analysis of the various kinds of water including observation borehole groundwater was carried out for the assessment of the hydrological safety of the underground oil storage cavern and the potentiality of mineralogical and microbiological clogging was estimated. Most of water samples belonged to $Ca-HCO_3$ and $Ca-HCO_3-SO_4$ types. There was no distinct chemical difference in the various kinds of water. All kinds of water are undersaturated with the calcite which is the major clogging mineral. Most water samples have low Fe and Mn concentrations. However, they are saturated or oversaturated with the iron-oxide/hydroxide minerals and have high dissolved oxygen contents which suggests the possibility of clogging by the iron-oxide/hydroxide minerals as a long-term aspect. Several water samples from the ground observation borehole also show the high saturation indices far the clay minerals, which can fill up the fractures, indicating the possibility of clogging by the clay minerals. Statistical analysis shows the degree of mineral precipitation or dissolution is mainly controlled by pH, Eh and DO of water samples. According to the microbial analysis, the aerobic microbes and slime forming bacteria are dominant in most water samples and anaerobic microbes including sulfate reducing bacteria are very low or not detected. Although the slime forming bacteria which are known as a main microbial cause of the clogging is lower than $10^5\;CFUs/mL$ in all water samples, because the slime forming bacteria are dominant microbe in several observation boreholes, the clogging can be caused by it as a long-term aspect. In addition, the possibility of clogging can be increased if the microbial effect is combined with the mineralogical effect such as iron oxide/hydroxide minerals for the possibility of clogging. Therefore, the systematic and long-term program for the assessment of clogging is required for the safe operation of underground oil storage cavern.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.45 no.8
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• pp.1177-1191
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• 2016

Estimation of food consumption details, such as portion size and frequency of consumption, is needed for exposure assessment step in microbiological risk assessment. This study investigated the amounts and frequencies of 50 kinds of consumed livestock products. A quantitative survey was performed by trained interviewers in face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults aged over 19, who were randomly selected from seven major provinces in Korea. Respondents received a picture of one serving size for each of the 50 livestock products, including meats, processed meat products, milk and dairy products, and eggs and processed egg products. A t-test and general linear model were carried out using SPSS statistics. The most important factor affecting consumption of livestock products was residence area. The most frequently consumed food was milk (2.6 times/week), followed by pork (1.4 times/week), liquid yogurt (1.3 times/week), rolled omelet (1.2 times/week), semisolid yogurt (1.0 times/week), steamed egg (1.0 times/week), ice cream (0.9 times/week), chicken (0.8 times/week), low fat milk (0.7 times/week), and beef (0.6 times/week). In the case of consumption amount, people living in a city consumed meat (beef, pork, chicken, and duck) 1.5 times more than those living in a village, whereas milk and dairy products and eggs and processed egg products were consumed more frequently by people living in a town. When people eat meat, they consume twice the amount of one serving size. Students consumed livestock and processed livestock products more frequently with greater portions all at once. People living in Seoul, Incheon/Gyeonggi, and Busan/Ulsan/Gyeongnam consumed livestock products more frequently in large amounts. Data from this study can be used for risk assessment of livestock and processed livestock products as well as education for safe consumption of livestock products.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.663-668
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• 2007

This study evaluated the microbial, nutritional, and rheological changes in potatoes, during storage at room, low, and freezing temperatures for 6 months. No significant changes in total aerobic plate counts were observed for any of the samples in the assessment of microbiological quality changes. For the 4 types of frozen potatoes, yeasts and molds were not found until 24 weeks. The sugar contents of the potatoes stored at room and low temperature ($10^{\circ}C$) increased during the first 4 weeks of storage, but then decreased rapidly thereafter; while those in the frozen potatoes did not change significantly throughout the 48 weeks. The vitamin C, B1, and B2 contents of the potatoes stored at room and low temperature had decreased significantly after 4 weeks of storage, however, the levels in the frozen potatoes did not change rapidly. The weight, volume, and hardness of the frozen potatoes changed much less as compared to the potatoes stored at room and low temperature over the 48 weeks of storage. Finally, the cohesiveness of all the samples, except for the frozen mashed potatoes, did not change during storage.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.241-248
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• 2015

Although studies on probiotics have been performed mostly with viable microbes, the beneficial functions of dead or heat-killed form of probiotic strains have also been examined. In this study, live and heat-killed forms of Lactobacillus acidophilus CBT LA1 were investigated in vitro and in vivo to evaluate the properties necessary for gut barrier protection. Cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH), autoaggregation (AA), cell adhesion, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-binding properties were evaluated. In addition, the suppressive effect on LPS-induced interleukin (IL)-8 expression was investigated in HT-29 cells. To identify optimal conditions for CBT LA1 to adhere to HT-29 cells, CBT LA1 cells were heat-treated at 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, or $121^{\circ}C$ for 10 min; cells treated at $80^{\circ}C$ for 10 min showed the highest adhesion. Heat-killed bacteria at $80^{\circ}C$ showed higher levels of LPS-binding, CSH, AA, adhesion to HT-29, and suppression of IL-8 expression than did live CBT LA1. In vivo imaging was performed to evaluate the ability of live or heat-killed CBT LA1 to remove LPS from the intestine in a rat model of infection. At 16 h after infection, fluorescence from FITC-conjugated LPS had mostly disappeared from the intestine of the rats administered with live or heat-killed CBT LA1; the effect was greater with heat-killed CBT LA1 at $80^{\circ}C$. These results suggest that heat-killed CBT LA1 as well as its live form can be applied as a pharmabiotic for protection of the gut barrier.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.62 no.5
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• pp.682-691
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• 2020

Careful cleaning and disinfection of pigpens is essential to prevent disease spread and avoid the resultant economic losses. Hygiene in pigpens is generally evaluated by visual monitoring supplemented with bacteriological monitoring, which includes counting the total aerobic bacteria (TAB) and/or fecal indicator bacteria (FIB). However, these methods present drawbacks such as time and labor requirements. As adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is ubiquitous in all living organisms including microorganisms, this study aimed to directly compare the results of microbial assessment and ATP quantification, and to suggest possible detailed application methods of the ATP test for hygiene evaluation in pigpens of a farrowing unit. Before and after standard cleaning procedures, samples were collected from the floor corner, floor center, and feeding trough of four pigpens at different time points. No FIB were detected and both the TAB and ATP levels were significantly decreased in the floor center area after cleaning. FIB were continuously detected after cleaning and disinfection of the floor corners, and there was no significant ATP level reduction. The feeding trough did not show any significant difference in these values before and after cleaning, indicating insufficient cleaning of this area. The levels of TAB and ATP after cleaning were significantly correlated and the average ATP value was significantly lower in the absence of FIB than in their presence. In the absence of standard references, a more thorough hygiene management could be achieved evenly by supplementing cleaning or disinfection based on the lowest ATP results obtained at the cleanest test site, which in the present study was the floor center. Overall, these results indicate that the on-farm ATP test can be used to determine the cleanliness status, in addition to visual inspection, as an alternative to laboratory culture-based testing for the presence of microorganisms.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.97-104
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• 2020

The present study conducted mock-up tests under the simulated sewage environments to examine the practical significance and limitation of coating materials that were previously developed on the basis of the bacterial glycocalix as a protection of concrete structures exposed to microbiological and sulphate attacks. The variations of the compressive strength and mass of the concrete due to the sulphate attack were measured using cylinder specimens. The bacteria growth and glycocalix formulation were calculated from the samples extracted from the sewage pipes. The next generation sequencing analysis was also conducted for environmental damage assessment due to the use of Rhodobacter capsulatus in the simulated sewage environments. The mock-up tests revealed that the developed coating materials have a good potential in resisting the sulphate attack, indicating no reduction on compressive strength and mass of the coated concrete under the sewage environment. At the age of 91 days, the concentrations of viable bacteria and glycocalix measured from the hardened coating materials were 1.4×10⁴cell/mL and 67.5mg/㎤, respectively. Moreover, harmful strains were not observed in the sewage water including glycocalix-coated concrete pipes. This implies that Rhodobacter capsulatus used in the coating materials does not influence negatively the microorganism cluster in the sewage environments.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.12-22
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• 2018

The US government has enacted the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2011, which is being phased in and planned. The final Rules of Produce Safety focus on biological hazards related to agricultural production, harvesting, packaging and storage, which are being phased in since 2017 depending on farm scale. As a result of comparison with the Korean-GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) standards, it is difficult to compare the two standards to be compared with each other by 1:1. However, many of the Korean-GAP standards are similar to FSMA Produce Safety rules. However, the Korean-GAP standards can be judged differently according to the evaluator as a comprehensive standard, so the details of the standards need to be reinforced. In terms of the provisions, the Korean-GAP standards are the most appropriate for the safety of workers (FSMA Subpart D), followed by livestock and wild animals (FSMA Subpart I), buildings, equipment and tools (FSMA Subpart L) and harvesting activities (FSMA Sub-part K). However, there are some weaknesses in the field of agricultural water management (FSMA Subpart E) and farm manager's qualifications and training (FSMA Subpart C), and the response to the biological soil amendments of animal origin and human waste (FSMA Subpart F) is weak. The FSMA regulation is not a certification standard, but it is expected that the marbling effect, which is the standard laid down by the United States leading the world food safety standards, is expected to be considerable. Therefore, we hope that the review of the Korean-GAP standards will help improve the quality of agricultural products and expand our exports, since the standard for responding to microbiological safety emphasized in the FSMA regulations is the Korean-GAP standard.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.312-318
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• 1999

These experiments were conducted to determine the effects of soils treated with different soil management, methods, fertilizers and crops on soil microflora and its number for constructing the environmentally sound agriculture modeling of the upland soils. These experiments show that physico-chemical soil characteristics was different in upland soils treated with different soil managements and fertilizers applied. Also soil microflora and its number were effected from crops cultivated with different soil managements in these experiments. The number of Erwinia sp. in chinese cabbage cultivated field on Daekwanryung especially was apparently increased in soil cultivated with potato relative to corn. It was appeared that the number of Fusarium sp. in soil was more effected from kind of fertilizer applied than crops cultivated.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.265-270
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• 2006

This study was performed in order to measure the level of food-borne pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance pattern of found ready to eat meals such as Him-bap, Cho-bap, Hamburger, Sandwich and packed lunch boxes. A total of 497 samples were collected from supermarket and department of Seoul, Kyung-ki, Inctleon, Kang-won, Chung-Cheong from November, 2005 to March, 2006. The contaminated microorganisms were in most cases tract relative strain like E. coli and S. aureus. Result have shown E. coli was detected 4 strains and S. aureus was detected 22 strains. 26 strains were also tested the antibiotic resistance pattern. 26 strains were shown to be relatively susceptible to synercid, vancomycin, teicoplanin, ciprofloxacin, gentamycin, lincomycn, cefotaxime, meropenem, cephalosporin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid by the MIC dilution method, but E. coli 1 strain was resistant to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.24-29
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• 2012

A total of 187 samples of leafy vegetables and fruits were acquired at traditional markets and department stores in Seoul, Korea. Samples were tested for microorganism distributions and for the presence of pathogenic bacteria. The aerobic mesophilic counts ranged between 2.5 and 9.4 log CFU/g, with the highest count recorded from the dropwort. Counts of psychrotrophic microorganisms were as high as those of the mesophilic microorganisms. Total coliform populations between 1.0 and 7.8 log CFU/g were found in 90.9% of the samples. Microbiological counts for fruits were very low. $Escherichia$ $coli$ was isolated in 24 (12.8%) samples. $Staphylococcus$ $aureus$ and $Clostridium$ $perfringens$ contamination were found in 15 (8.0%) and 20 (10.7%) samples. $Salmonella$ species and $Listeria$ $monocytogenes$ were detected in 2.7 and 0.5% of samples, respectively. Among the total 187 samples, 8 samples were contaminated by more than two pathogens. $E.$ $coli$ O157:H7 was not detected in any of the samples. The microbial contamination levels determined in the present study may be used as the primary data to execute microbial risk assessment of fresh vegetables and fruits.