• Development and Reproduction
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 1999

It is crucial to remove trophectoderm (TE) cells of blastocysts for an efficient isolation of pluripotent embryonic stem (ES)-like cells from bovine blastocysts. We evaluated the effectiveness of chemosurgery using calcium ionophore A23l87 (CIPA) by investigating the viability and pluripotency of ES-like cell lines isolated from in vitro-produced bovine blastocysts after CIPA treatment. The blastocysts treated with 50 $\mu$M CIPA for 25 min colonized most efficiently (51% of blastocysts) and developed to ES-like cell lines through 10 passages (4.8% of blastocysts) among CIPA-treated groups with different concentration and duration. In comparison with CIPA-untreated blastocysts, the colonization rate and overall viability of the CIPA-treated blastocysts were five times higher, suggesting that CIPA treatment condition defined in this study was highly efficient for establishing ES-like cell lines without apparent toxicity of CIPA. We evaluated in vitro pluripotency of the established three ES-like cell lines by examining alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity, capability of embryoid body formation, and chromosomal euploidity of the cells. Our cells showed a heterogeneous AP activity similarly to other reports. The cells were able to form simple embryoid bodies during suspension culture and majority of them showed a normal chromosome number of 60, the euploid chromosomal complement of bovine Therefore, our data suggest that CIPA treatment can be safely used for an efficient isolation of ES-like cell lines from bovine blastocysts.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.75-79
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• 2009

The purposes of this study were to find out the factors affecting the continuous participation of volunteer activities for disaster relief and to provide implications for the efficient management of sustainable disaster relief volunteer activities. In order to achieve these purposes, we investigated how much individual characteristics, the volunteer attitude and motivation, and institutional characteristics, respectively, affect the duration of disaster relief volunteer activities. The research was carried out targeting 261 disaster relief volunteer workers, aged over 20, who affiliated to various volunteer centers. Data were collected by survey methodology from May 7th to May 27th, 2008. A frequency analysis and a multiple regression were utilized for analyzing data. The results of this study were as follows: the continuity of volunteer activities of the subjects are likely to be high when they are older, have a job, are highly motivated, are assigned properly to the placement and task. Based on the results of this study, some practical implications were suggested. First, since placement and task assignment managed by volunteer organizations are very important for the continuity of volunteer activities, those organizations should have developed diverse volunteer activity programs considering volunteers' characteristics and interest. Second, the managers of those organizations need to sufficiently consider the characteristics of volunteers such as age and job when dispatching volunteers in disaster areas. The managers should help their volunteers to immerse in their volunteer work. Finally, it is necessary to induce social concern and support in disaster relief volunteer activities in order to make volunteers especially with jobs be constantly active in disaster relief activities.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.858-864
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• 2015

Developmental changes in the vocal signals of serotine bats (Eptesicus serotinus) during their infancy were examined in this study. The analysis was conducted on 4 infant serotine bats from 1 to 40 days after their birth. Pulse duration (PD), pulse interval (PI), peak frequency (PF), maximum frequency ($F_{MAX}$), minimum frequency ($F_{MIN}$), and bandwidth (BW) were measured. As the bats grew, their vocalizations became increasingly consistent and similar to those of adults. For infant bats, PD and PI decreased as they grew older, whereas PF, $F_{MAX}$, $F_{MIN}$, and BW increased. The greatest change in vocalizations was observed between the $10^{th}$ and $20^{th}$ days after birth. Also, PF, $F_{MAX}$, $F_{MIN}$ and BW, which describe sound frequency, increased dramatically during the period between the $10^{th}$ and the $20^{th}$ days. In contrast, the greatest change in PD occurred between the $30^{th}$ and $40^{th}$ days after birth. The results collected in this study suggest that frequency increased as the contraction ability of the muscles developed by around 20 days of age. Muscle relaxation ability, which is related to PD, was found to develop significantly at 30 to 40 days of age. According to the results of this study, although 40 day-old infant bats are not yet able to fly, their vocal signals were similar to those of adults. This indicates that vocal development and flying activity develop separately in young bats.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.545-551
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• 2007

Bacillus sp. SP-KSW3 is an auxothroph bacteria that is being used for starter in fermentation. Physico-chemical characteristics, enzyme activities, ACE inhibitor and antimutagenicity in fermented soybean inoculated with Bacillus sp. SP-KSW3 starter was investigated for the ripening duration of fermentation. Tyrosinase and ACE showed 10% higher activity degree on test field than control. for antimutagenicity using S. enterica serovar Typhimurium TA100 against MNNG and NPD showed 86.24% and 75.63% Similarly, S. enterica serovar Typhimurium TA98 was used against NPD and NQO showed 60.28% and 50.92% respectively. Hydrogen donating ability increased compared to the control having 81.7% and 80.1% respectively. Daidzin of isoflavone in fermented soybean showed higher concentration in control than in the test field. Genistein from two years of ripening test field contained 11.67 mg/kg compared to the test field. The initial test field for daidzin contained 389.96 mg/kg which increased to 453.67 mg/kg after two years and the initial genistein contained 402.68 mg/kg which also increased to 556.86 mg/kg.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2018

The rapid increase of the elderly living alone is a critical issue in worldwide as it leads to a rapid increase of a social support costs (e.g., medical expenses) for the elderly. In early stages of dementia, the activities of daily living (ADL) including self-care tasks can be affected by abnormal patterns or behaviors and used as an evidence for the early diagnosis. However, extracting activities using non-intrusive approach is still quite challenging and the existing methods are not fully visualized to understand the behavior pattern or routine. To address these issues, this research suggests a model to extract the activities from coarse-grained data (spatio-temporal data log) and visualize the behavioral context information. Our approach shows the process of extracting and visualizing the subject's spaceactivity map presenting the context of each activity (time, room, duration, sequence, frequency). This research contributes to show a possibility of detecting subject's activities and behavioral patterns using coarse-grained data (limited to spatio-temporal information) with little infringement of personal privacy.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.401-408
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• 2007

The feeding behaviors of 2 biotypes (type B and Q) of tobacco whitefly, Bemisia tobaci, were monitored using EPG technique on tomato and pepper plants treated 3 insecticides for controlling whiteflies, for examples, acetamiprid, spinosad and thiamethoxam. After treatment of three insecticides with recommended concentrations to tomato and pepper plants, EPG waveforms were recorded during 6 hours. The characteristic patterns of feeding behaviors investigated were as follows; time consumed by withdrawal of proboscis, total non-penetration time, total stylet pathway pattern time and total phloem feeding time. There was somewhat difference among 3 insecticides tested. As a result of investigation of total duration showed the stylet pathway activity due to the reaction against all tested insecticides, the Q biotype showed fewer time than those from the B biotype. The B biotype showed more frequent stylet pathway activity patterns during whole recording time and a shorter phloem ingestion time than those from the Q biotype. In result of prior up (non-penetration) time representing the reaction against the insecticide treated, the time of B biotype was more faster than that of the Q biotype, so it was considered that the B biotype was more sensitive to the tested insecticides. Therefore, our results revealed a clear difference in feeding behaviour between the B and Q biotypes of B. tabaci. Also, it was investigated that B biotype was susceptible to the 3 insecticides.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.150-156
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• 2007

Some flavonoids have spasmolytic activities in various smooth muscles, but structure-activity relationships on their spasmolytic activity and its mechanism are unclear. In this study, effects of flavones (flavone and apigenin) and flavonols (quercetin and rutin) on the rat ileal smooth muscle contraction were studied in vitro and in vitro. In the electric stimulation-induced contraction, all of four flavonoids inhibited concentration-dependently the rat ileal smooth muscle contraction induced by electric stimulation (10 mV, 0.1 cps, 0.1 msec duration), IC$_{50}$ of quercetin, apigenin, flavone and rutin were 0.98${\times}$10$^{-5}$, 1.20${\times}$10$^{-5}$, 1.55${\times}$10$^{-5}$ and 1.85${\times}$10$^{-5}$ M, respectively. Flavonoids at a concentration of 2${\times}$10$^{-5}$ M also significantly inhibited the anaphylactic contraction and decreased concentration-dependently the mast cell degranulation by anaphylactic reaction, IC$_{50}$ of quercetin, apigenin, flavone and rutin were 4.0${\times}$10$^{-5}$, 7.5${\times}$10$^{-5}$, 8.0${\times}$10$^{-5}$ and 9.5${\times}$10$^{-5}$ M, respectively. These results indicated that flavones and flavonols inhibited the rat ileal smooth muscle contraction induced by electric stimulation because of their antagonism against acetylcholine and have spasmolytic activities on anaphylactic contraction which may be due to their mast cell-stabilizing activities. Furthermore, double bond of C$_{2,3}$ in benzene ring of flavonoids may be important in the their antispasmodic activities on the rat ileal smooth muscle contraction induced by electric stimulation and anaphylactic reaction.

• Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.145-149
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• 2023

BACKGROUND: ¹⁸F-sodium fluoride positron emission tomography/computed tomography (¹⁸F-NaF PET/CT) has been proven to be useful in identification of microcalcifications, which are stimulated by inflammation. Blood speckle imaging (BSI) is a new imaging technology used for tracking the flow of blood cells using transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). We evaluated the relationship between turbulent flow identified by BSI and inflammatory activity of the aortic valve (AV) as indicated by the ¹⁸F-NaF uptake index in moderate aortic stenosis (AS) patients. METHODS: This study enrolled 18 moderate AS patients diagnosed within the past 6 months. BSI within the aortic root was acquired using long-axis view TEE. The duration of laminar flow and the turbulent flow area ratio were calculated by BSI to demonstrate the degree of turbulence. The maximum and mean standardized uptake values (SUVmax, SUVmean) and the total microcalcification burden (TMB) as measured by ¹⁸F-NaF PET/CT were used to demonstrate the degree of inflammatory activity in the AV region. RESULTS: The mean SUVmean, SUVmax, and TMB were 1.90 ± 0.79, 2.60 ± 0.98, and 4.20 ± 2.18 mL, respectively. The mean laminar flow period and the turbulent area ratio were 116.1 ± 61.5 msec and 0.48 ± 0.32. The correlation between SUVmax and turbulent flow area ratio showed the most positive and statistically significant correlation, with a Pearson's correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.658 and a p-value of 0.014. CONCLUSIONS: The high degree of trans-aortic turbulence measured by BSI was correlated with severe AV inflammation.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.435-443
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• 2012

This study investigated soil carbon storage and microbial activities influenced by different management practices in rice paddies and pastures. Soils under a single-crop farming of rice (CON) and rice-Italian ryegrass rotation farming (IRG) were compared in Jangheung, Jeollanam-do, Seocheon and Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do. Soils from pastures were analyzed to investigate the effect of duration period (P1, P2, P3) in Namwon, Jeollabuk-do and Seosan, Chungcheongnam-do. In rice paddy, total and particulate carbon (PC) concentrations in the IRG soils were significantly higher than those in the CON soils both in Jangheung and Seocheon where the IRG has been established for three years, whereas carbon concentrations were not significantly different in Cheonan where IRG planting history is only one year. In rice paddy soils, PC was suggested as an early indicator to monitor changes in soil carbon storage followed by adopting different management practices. In pasture, total and PC concentrations increased with duration period especially in the 0-5 cm soils. Contrary to the rice paddy soils, the magnitude of change in PC concentration is not as great as that in total carbon concentration, implying that there is a need to develop a new early indicator other than PC using different fractionation scheme. The soil carbon storage in pasture also increased with years since establishment and the increasing rate was significantly greater in the early stage (0-5 yrs) than the later one (> 5 yrs). Microbial activities measured from fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis analysis were significantly lower in the IRG soils than CON soils, whereas no difference was observed in the pastures of different ages. This shows that FDA activity is not a sensitive indicator to differentiate soil qualities influenced by management practices if it is used by itself.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.244-249
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• 2001

The transforming growth $factor-{\beta}$ ($TGF-{\beta}$) is a multifunctional cytokine modulating the onset and course of autoimmune disease as shown in experimental models. In synovial inflammation, there is a potential role for $TGF-{\beta}$ in repairment, the inhibition of cartilage and bone destruction, and the down-regulation of immune response. The biologic effects of $TGF-{\beta}$ depend on the cell type, the isoform and the availability of active $TGF-{\beta}$. We investigated $TGF-{\beta}$ expression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and compared to those of osteoarthritis (OA). And we determined a correlation between $TGF-{\beta}1$ and $TGF-{\beta}2$, and also the relationships between each $TGF-{\beta}$ isoform and the parameters for disease activity of RA. Methods: The study population consisted of 20 patients with RA and 20 patients with OA. The commercial ELISA kit was used to study $TGF-{\beta}1$ and $TGF-{\beta}2$ levels in peripheral blood (PB) and synovial fluids (SF). Results: 1) While PB $TGF-{\beta}1$ level was of no difference between RA and OA patient groups, SF $TGF-{\beta}1$ level was higher in RA group than OA group. Similarly, PB $TGF-{\beta}2$ levels of RA and OA groups was not different, but SF $TGF-{\beta}2$ levels was higher in RA group than OA group. 2) In patients with RA, the $TGF-{\beta}1$ levels were higher than $TGF-{\beta}2$ in both the PB and SF, while in patients with OA, there showed higher readings for $TGF-{\beta}1$ than $TGF-{\beta}2$ in SF but no difference between $TGF-{\beta}1$ and $TGF-{\beta}2$ levels in PB. 3) In patients with RA, there were no correlations between PB $TGF-{\beta}1$ and PB $TGF-{\beta}2$ levels, nor between SF $TGF-{\beta}1$ and SF $TGF-{\beta}2$ levels. At the same way, there was no correlation between PB $TGF-{\beta}1$ and SF $TGF-{\beta}1$ levels, nor between each levels of $TGF-{\beta}2$ in patients with RA. 4) There was also no correlation between each $TGF-{\beta}$ isoform and the parameters for disease activity such as ESR, CRP, tender joint count, swollen joint count, rheumatoid factor, and the duration of morning stiffness except between in PB $TGF-{\beta}1$ and disease duration of RA (r=0.637, p<0.01). Conclusion: Each $TGF-{\beta}$ isoforms were higher in synovial fluid of patients with RA than that of patients with OA. The data from the RA patients demonstrated different patterns of expressions of the isoforms depending on which compartment (PB or SF) was investigated. The quantification of different $TGF-{\beta}$ isoform is thought to be important when $TGF-{\beta}$ is measured under disease conditions of RA.