• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2003

Most of broiler houses in Korea have the trouble of environmental control such as suitability, stability, and uniformity of internal climate, resulting in serious stress on chickens. Accordingly, it is very urgent to develop optimum designs of naturally and mechanically ventilated broiler houses for Korean climate. In this study, the internal climates such as air temperature, humidity, dust, ammonia gas, and air velocity were measured at a naturally ventilated broiler house. The data were collected during summer season including local weather data. It was found that the difference between measured and optimum air temperatures was $14.0^{\circ}C$ in maximum during the summer time. The daily maximum range of internal averaged air temperature was found $10.5^{\circ}C$ while the uniformity was $5.2^{\circ}C$ in maximum. The maximum, average, and minimum internal averaged relative humidity were 89.3%, 73.7%, and 49.2%, respectively while locally measured were 95.1% and 47.2%, respectively in maximum and minimum. Considering Temperature-humidity index, during summer season, over 97% of totally rearing period was shown that counter plan is needed for thermal stress while it was very dangerous situation for 22% of the rearing period. The ammonia gas and dust concentrations were seriously affected by the broilers activity, growth level, and relative humidity.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.81-87
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• 2009

Purpose : We sought to evaluate enhancement of plaque with gadolinium-based contrast agent by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in comparison with histopathology, namely lipid-rich and macrophage-rich components that were two representative characteristics of plaque vulnerability using atherosclerotic rabbit aorta in order to determine which histopathologic component is relevant to the enhancement. Materials and Methods : New Zealand white rabbit (n=4, weight 3.0 to 3.5 kg, all male) was used for animal model of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerotic aortic lesions were induced by high-cholesterol diet and double balloon injury. T1-weight axial images were acquired before and after gadolinium-based contrast agent using a 3-T MRI. MR images and the matched histopathological sections (n=35) were divided into 4 quadrants or 3 (n=130). Enhancement ratio (ER, ER=SIpost/SIpre) on MRI was calculated for each quadrant and compared with histopathology in regard to lipid-rich and macrophage-rich areas. Results : Lipid-rich quadrants were 72 and fibrous quadrants were 58. The number of quadrants which had macrophage-rich areas was 105 and that of quadrants which did not have macrophage-rich areas was 25. ER was significantly higher in lipid-rich quadrants than in fibrous quadrants (mean ER 2.25c$\pm$0.41 vs. 2.72$\pm$0.65, p=0.013). ER poorly correlated with macrophage-rich areas when lipid-component was controlled (correlation coefficient -0.203, p=0.236). Conclusion : Lipid-rich plaques showed stronger enhancement than fibrous plaques using a standard gadolinium-based extracellular contrast agent. Macrophage infiltration did not correlate with degree of enhancement. Further study is warranted that account for optimal time of imaging after contrast injection using various plaque models from early to advanced stages and all possible parameters associated with contrast enhancement.