• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.896-907
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• 2024

Objective: The potential of aqueous extract of Christ's thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) leaves (SLAE) to reduce the negative impacts of heat stress on production performance and physiological traits was investigated in dual-purpose layers under subtropical farming. Methods: A total of 200, 25-week-old laying hens (Inshas strain) were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments including SLAE at 0, 2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 mL/kg, respectively. The average temperature-humidity index value was 26.69 during the experimental period. The SLAE contained saponin (0.045%), total flavonoid content of 17.9 mg of quercetin equivalent/100 g and overall antioxidant capacity concentration of 17.9 mg of ascorbic acid equivalent/100 g. Results: The maximum final body weight (BW), BW gain, egg weight, number, and mass occurred at the level of SLAE7.5 inclusion. The egg quality was significantly higher in SLAE groups than in control, and overall, SLAE7.5 had the most favorable influence at 28 and 32 weeks. Liver and kidney function, as well as lipids profile, improved significantly by SLAE inclusion; the lowest concentrations of these parameters were in SLAE7.5 hens. Treatment with SLAE7.5 increased total antioxidant capacity and endogenous antioxidant enzymes compared to control, whereas no effect on superoxide dismutase was noticed. Conclusion: The addition of SLAE at 7.5 mL/kg diet improved egg laying performance and quality, metabolic profiles, and antioxidant status during hyperthermia conditions.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.7
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• pp.1246-1254
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• 2024

Objective: The goal of the current study was to investigate the impact of various concentrations of xylanase in energy-deficient corn-based diets on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility, and digesta viscosity in broilers from 7 to 35 days of age. Methods: A total of 280 seven-day-old Ross 308 broilers were randomly allocated to one of the five dietary treatments following a completely randomized design with 8 replicates and 7 birds per cage. The treatments were: i) positive control (PC, without xylanase); ii) NC-1 (80 kcal/kg ME reduced from PC); iii) NC-2 (100 kcal/kg ME reduced from PC); iv) NCX-1 (NC-1 + 2,000 U/kg xylanase); and v) NCX-2 (NC-2 + 3,000 U/kg xylanase). Body weight, weight gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio were determined weekly to evaluate growth performance. One bird per pen was sacrificed for ileal digesta collection to determine the viscosity and digestibility of energy, dry matter, crude protein on days 24 and 35, however breast and leg meat samples were obtained for proximate analysis (moisture, crude protein, fat, and ash) on day 35. Results: Birds fed diets supplemented with xylanase regardless of the amount had higher (p<0.05) body weights, daily gains, and improved feed efficiency compared to NC diets all throughout the experimental period. Feed intake was not affected (p>0.05) by the addition of xylanase. Moreover, lowered (p<0.05) viscosity of the ileal digesta were observed upon xylanase inclusion in the diets compared to the birds fed NC diets on day 24. Ileal nutrient digestibility and meat proximate composition were not affected (p>0.05) by xylanase. Conclusion: The present study indicated that the xylanase at 2,000 U/kg and 3,000 U/kg levels compensates for the 80 kcal/kg and 100 kcal/kg dietary energy levels, respectively, without having adverse effects on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, nutrient digestibility, and digesta viscosity of broilers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.79-92
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• 2007

Oxidative stress have known to be a risk factor for the degenerative processes and closely related to a lot of diseases. It is well established that antioxidants are good in protection and therapeutic means against oxidative damage. There is increasing interest in natural antioxidants and many natural antioxidants have been found and utilized as the possible protection for various diseases and skin aging. We have screened natural antioxidant agents for cosmeceuticals, nutraceuticals, and drugs as therapeutic and preventive means against oxidative stress, and have developed a number of novel antioxidants from various natural sources. A novel melanin synthesis inhibitor, Melanocin A, isolated from the metabolite of a fungal strain Eupenicillium shearii F80695 inhibited mushroom tyrosinase and melanin biosynthesis of B16 melanoma cells with $IC_{50}$ value of 9.0 nM and MIC value of $0.9\;{\mu}M$, respectively. Melanocin A also exhibited potent antioxidant activity by scavenging of DPPH and superoxide anion radicals. UV was found to increase the level of hydrogen peroxides and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) in skin tissues. This increase in ROS may not only alter the structure and function of many genes and proteins directly but may also modulate their expressions through signal transduction pathways and, ultimately, lead to skin damage. We investigated the effect of Melanocin A on UV-induced premature skin aging. Firstly, the effect of Melanocin A on UV-induced matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 expression in an immortalized human keratinocyte cell line, HaCaT in vitro was investigated. Acute UV irradiation induced MMP-9 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels and Melanocin A suppressed this expression in a dose-dependent manner. We then investigated UV-induced skin changes in hairless mice in vivo by Melanocin A. Chronic exposure of hairless mouse dorsal skin to UV increased skin thickness and induced wrinkle formation and the gelatinase activities of MMP-2 and MMP-9. Moreover, Melanocin A significantly suppressed UV-induced morphologic skin changes and MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression. These results show that Melanocin A can prevent the harmful effects of UV that lead to skin aging. Therefore, we suggest that Melanocin A should be viewed as a potential therapeutic agent for preventing and/or treating premature skin aging. Terrein is a bioactive fungal metabolite isolated from Penicillium species. Terrein has a relatively simple structure and can be easily synthesized. However, the biologic effects of terrein are comparatively unknown. We found for the first time that terrein potently inhibit melanin production in melanocytes and has a strong hypopigmentary effect in a spontaneously immortalized mouse melanocyte cell line, Mel-Ab. Treatment of Mel-Ab cells with terrein (10-100 mM) for 4 days significantly reduced melanin levels in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, terrein at the same concentration also reduced tyrosinase activity. We then investigated whether terrein influences the extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) pathway and the expression of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF), which is required for tyrosinase expression. Terrein was found to induce sustained ERK activation and MITF down-regulation, and luciferase assays showed that terrein inhibits MITF promoter activity in a dose-dependent manner. To elucidate the correlation between ERK pathway activation and a decreased MITF transcriptional level, PD98059, a specific inhibitor of the ERK pathway, was applied before terrain treatment and found to abrogate the terrein-induced MITF attenuation. Terrein also reduced the tyrosinase protein level for at least 72 h. These results suggest that terrain reduces melanin synthesis by reducing tyrosinase production via ERK activation, and that this is followed by MITF down-regulation.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.1283-1294
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• 1998

This study was conducted to investigate nutritional status by anthropometric meas-urement and to assess the validity of indicators for nutritional status of preschool children. Health examinations, including blood and urine tests, were done for 799 childern aged 2 to 6 years. The mean anthropometric measurements of height, weight , head circumference, and chest circumference were 90.2cm, 13.9kg, 47.7cm, 50.9cm for 2 years (n=13), 94.8cm, 15.2kg, 43.3cm, 47.0cm for 3 years(n=125), 100.7cm, 16.4kg, 46.2cm, 50.5cm for 4 years(n=272), 106.5cm, 18.1kg, 48.8cm, 53.8cm for 5 years(n=253), 113.0cm 20.4kg, 50.4cm 56.9cm for 6 years(n=136), respectively. All anthropometric measureemnts were significantly different by age and sex. The results of physical examinations excluding dental examination were normal for all studied children. Urine test results were also normal for the subjects. The most common blood type was A and the rarest one was type AB. The mean hemoglobin concentration was 11.84g/dl for boys(n=398), 11.86g/dl for girls, and 11.85kg/dl for all. The percentage of childeren whose hemoglobin concentration was less than 11.0g/dl was 21.6% for boys and 18.9% for girls. The percentage of children whose height for age, weight for age, and weight for height were in the rang of median $\pm$1 standard devication(S.D) was 71.7% , 65.6%, and 67.0% for each indicator. Obese childeren whose weight for height or weigth for age was more than median +2S.D. were 5.2% while tall children whose height for age was more than median +2S.D, were 1.8% . Past and recent nutritional status of most children(87.2%) were assessed as normal by the combination of three indicators(height for age, weight for age, weight for height). The percentate of coincidence between for height) and one assessed by anthropometric measurements (height for age, weight for age, weight for height) and one assessed by physicial was 59.6%, 69.3% and 67.8% for each indicator, respectively. The distribution of subjects by height for age was significantly different between normal and anemic groups. With these results , the nutritional status of children the studied was normal. The anthropometric measurements reflected the nutritional status of childeren relatively well. In conclusion, in comparison with biochemical meausurements anthropometric measurements are relatively simple and effective indicators for nutritional assessement of children in large health and nutrition suveys in Korea.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.68.1-68.1
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• 2013

Infrared Medium-Deep Survey is a near-infrared imaging survey geared toward understanding the formation and the evolution of quasars and galaxies at high redshift, and studying transient and time-variable objects such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and young stellar objects. The survey uses a multi-tier structure, with deep imaging survey of 100 $deg^2$ using UKIRT to the depth of 23 AB mag, and a shallower imaging of interesting sources using the CQUEAN camera on the 2.1m telescope at McDonald observatory. This talk will give an overview of the survey strategy, the instrument development, and science highlights. The science highlights will include the discovery of high redshift quasars, high redshift galaxy clusters, GRBs, and other interesting sources. At the end of the talk, we will also present the future prospects of our study.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.102-108
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• 2004

Orf virus (ORFV), a member of genus Parapoxvirus (family-Poxviridae), a causative agent of contagious ecthyma in sheep and goat leading to a condition commonly known as vesicular dermatitis. Recently, twelve goats from Iksan in Jeonbuk province were observed with clinical signs like necrotic vesicular lesions around the mucosa of mouth, nasal cavity, eye, ear, teats, abdomen and groin. Based on these clinical symptoms, contagious ecthyma infection was suspected. The skin scrapping was collected from lesions for isolation of DNA and subsequent PCR amplification of ORFV specific 235 bp region of B2L gene. All of the samples were found positive by PCR analysis. Sequencing and further phylogenetic analysis of the PCR product revealed 100% identity to Japan isolate of ORFV (Okinawa, GenBank accession number AB080769), and showed 99.6% of similarity to New Zealand strain (NZ-2, GenBank accession number U06671). It was concluded that ORFV strain detected in the present study is homologous to Japan isolate and New Zealand strain. The PCR test based on amplification of B2L gene is a highly useful tools for rapid and specific diagnosis of contagious ecthyma.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.598-602
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• 2004

The Tongcheng pig breed is a famous Chinese indigenous breed. The Ministry of Agriculture of China has filed it as 1 of 19 national key conservation breeds selected from more than 100 Chinese indigenous pig breeds in 2000. In order to improve the reproductive performance, it has been intensively selected to increase the litter size for about 10 years. The population randomly sampled from conservation nucleus of eight families in the Tongcheng pigs was genotyped for identification of their estrogen receptor locus polymorphisms with the PCR-RFLPs method. Only AB heterozygotes and BB homozygotes were detected, and $X^2$ test demonstrated that the locus was in disequilibrium at a significant level (p<0.05). In the present paper, the litter sizes in different parities were regarded as different traits. Holistic status of other unspecific and unidentified genes was estimated by using the statistical methods. Coefficients of kurtosis and skewness showed that the litter size still presented segregating characteristic in the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th parities. Analysis of homogeneity of variance between families confirmed the results for the 5th, 7th and 8th parities. The heritability of litter size for the 1st to 10th parities was estimated with paternal half-sib model and individual estimated breeding values (EBVs) were evaluated by a single trait animal model as well. We found that the averages of EBVs for litter size in each parity did not differ significantly between genotypes, despite the significant difference for original phenotype records in the 3rd, 4th and 5th parities (p<0.05 or p<0.01). The results may be explained by the deduction that the polymorphisms of ESR locus are no longer the important genetic base of litter size variation when the frequency of allele B accumulated in the experience of selection procedure, and further conferring that there exist special genes associated with litter size in the recent Tongcheng pigs population can be made.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2001

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of dietary supplemental Enviro on noxious gas of environmental controlled poultry house and performance of broiler chicks. Diets contained 21.5, 19.00 CP and 3,100, 3,200 kcal/kg ME, respectively for starting and finishing period. Enviro were supplemented with 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3% in Expt. 1 and 2, respectively. $CO_{2}$ and ammonia gas were periodically detected for finsihing period in Expt. 1. Weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion(FC) were measured for five weeks in Expt. 2. ND antibody titer were also measured after primary and booster vaccination at two and three weeks old. Blood cholesterol and nutrients digestibility were In Expt. 1, ammonia and $CO_{2}$ gas of chicks fed 0.2% Enviro showed 32.8ppm and 1,719ppm in poultry house and significantly decrease compared to that of control(P〈0.05). $CO_{2}$ gas was 1,814ppm in 0.4% Enviro treatments and also significantly lower than control(P〈0.05), but tended to be increased compared to that of 0.2% Enviro treatments, In Expt. 2, weight gain of chicks fed 0.1 and 0.2% Enviro was significantly increased for starting period(P〈0.05), but was not statistically different for finishing period. Feed intake was no significantly different of all treatments. Chicks showed lower FC in 0.3% Enviro treatment for starting period(P〈0.05) than others, but was not for finishing period. ND AB titer of chicks fed Enviro was prone to be higher than control, but was not significantly different. Total blood cholesterol was not significantly different of all treatments, but tended to be high in 0.1 and 0.2% Enviro treatments. HDL of chicks fed those levels showed significantly higher than control(P〈0.05), whereas LDL was tended to be decreased in those treatments. The digestibilites of crude protein and fiber were improved in 0.1 and 0.2% Enviro treatments relative to those of control, but was not statistically different. However, crude ash digestibility was significantly improved in 0.1 and 0.2% Enviro treatments(P〈0.05). Chicks also showed AMEn in 0.1, 0.2% Enviro treatments, but was no significance. The results of these experiments indicated that 0.1% Enviro supplement would be maximize the performance of broiler chicks.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.283-290
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• 2000

The present study was carried out to investigate the blood markers of Cheju horses. The blood protein types (biochemical polymorphism) were tested from 73 Cheju native horses (CNH) and 118 Cheju racehorses(CRH) by horizontal polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (HPAGE), isoelectric focusing (IEF) and starch gel electrophoresis (SGE). At the same time, their phenotypes and gene frequencies were studied. The biochemical polymorphism phenotypes observed with high frequency were A1B-KK(97.3%), ALB-AB(49.3%), AP-SS(100%), ES-II(30.1%), GC-FF(87.7%), HB-BIBI(49.3%), TF-F2R(41.1%), TF-EF2(8.2%), PGD-FF(97.3%), PGM-SS(50.7%), GPI-II(74.0%) in CNH, While A1B-KK(99.2%), ALB-BB(50.8%), AP-SS(99.2%), ES-II(42.4%), ES-IS(14.4%), GC-FF(95.8%), HBB-IB II(39.8%), TF-F2R(21.2%), PGD-FF(77.1%), PGD-SS(4.3%), PGM-SS(72.9%), GPI-II(90.7%) in CRH. Alleles observed with high frequency were $AlB^{K}$(0.986), $ALB^{B}$(0.616), $AP^{S}$(1.000), $ES^{I}$(0.479), $ES^{F}$(0.274), $GC^{F}$(0.938), $GPI^{I}$(0.856), $HB^{BI}$(0.685), $PGD^{F}$(0.993), $PGM^{S}$(0.753), $TF^{F2}$(0.404), $TF^{R}$(0.397) in CNH and $AlB^{K}$(0.996), $ALB^{B}$(0.720), $AP^{S}$(0.996), $ES^{I}$(0.661), $ES^{F}$(0.203), $GC^{F}$(0.979), $GPI^{I}$(0.936), $HB^{BI}$(0.534), $PGD^{F}$(0.864), $PGM^{S}$(0.852), $TF^{F2}$(0.428), $TF^{R}$(0.272) in CRH. $TF^{E}$(0.041) allele and silent gene($ES^{I{^*}}$ : 0.014) were observed in CNH. The mean heterozygosity in CNH and CRH was observed 0.2974 and 0.2864, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2002

The study was carried out to characterize the pharmacokinetics after intravenous (iv, 20 mg/kg) and oral (p.o. 100 mg/kg) administration as oxytetracycline (OTC) and tiamulin (TIA) mixture in swine and to determine interaction between OTC and TIA against various pig pathogenic bacteria. The antibacterial effects of OTC in combination with TIA in vitro showed synergistic effect against Salmonella typhimurium 1925, Pasteurella multocida Type A, P. multocida Type D, Krebsiella Pneumoniae 2001, K. Pneumoniae 1560, K. Pneumoniae 2208, Haemophillus pleuropneumonia S 2, and H. pleuropneumonia S 5, but against additive effect E. coli K88ab and S. choleraesuis on the basis of fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) index. On the while, after i.v. and p.o. administration of OTC and TIA mixture, each OTC and TIA concentrations in plasma were fitted to an open two-compartment model. After i.v. administration of OTC-TIA mixture, the mean distribution half-life ($T_{1/2{\alpha}}$) of OTC and TIA in plasma showed 0.29 h and 0.17 h, and the mean elimination half-life ($T_{1/2{\beta}}$) of those was 4.36 h and 6.64 h, respectively. The mean volume of distribution at steady state ($Vd_{ss}$) of OTC and TIA was $0.85{\ell}/kg$ and $2.44{\ell}/kg$, respectively. After oral administration of OTC and TIA mixture, the mean maximal absorption concentrations ($C_{max}$) of OTC and TIA were $0.60{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ at 1.07 h ($T_{max}$) and $1.68{\mu}g/m{\ell}$ at 1.85 h ($T_{max}$), respectively. The mean elimination half-life ($T_{1/2{\beta}}$) of those showed 6.84 h and 6.36 h. In conclusion, we could suggest in this study that the combination of OTC and TIA may be recommended for the antibacterial therapy against polymicrobial infections, and both OTC and TIA showed large distribution to tissues and high $C_{max}$ after p.o. administration.