• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.844-854
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• 2021

Objective: The potential of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), betaine (BET), and ginger (GIN), as natural antioxidants, in reducing negative effects of heat stress on physiological responses, antioxidant capacity, semen quality and fertility of bucks under heat stress were investigated. Methods: Forty adult Animal Production Research Institute line rabbit bucks were distributed randomly into four experimental treatments of ten rabbits each. The first treatment was fed the commercial pellet diet (CPD) without supplementation and served as a control. The other three treatments were fed CPD supplemented with EVOO (300 mg), BET (1,000 mg), and GIN (200 mg) per kg diet for 3 consecutive months during the summer season. Results: Supplementation of EVOO, BET, or GIN improved (p<0.05) the sexual desire, progressive motility, vitality, intact acrosome and membrane integrity, sperm cell concentration, sperm outputs and fertility. Seminal plasma total proteins, globulin, total antioxidant capacity, glutathione and glutathione S-transferase, and initial fructose increased (p<0.05), while total lipids, aspartate and alanine aminotransferases and malondialdehyde decreased (p<0.05) compared with the control. In comparing the natural antioxidants treatments, GIN evoked the largest improvement. Conclusion: The inclusion of GIN (200 mg/kg diet) appeared to improve the sexual desire, semen quality and oxidative stress of bucks. This may be a beneficial supplement for the management of rabbit bucks used in natural mating or artificial insemination.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2022

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate anti-breast cancer and anti-inflammatory effects of Chungganhaewool-tang and Shipyeukmiyeugi-eum. Methods: MDA-MB-231 cells were used to measure cytotoxicity, Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, protein expression amounts of Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax), B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), B-cell lymphoma-extra large (Bcl-xl), Cytochrome C Caspase-3, Caspase-7, Caspase-9, Poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP), Nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and NAD (P) H Quinone Oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) to evaluate the anti-breast cancer effects of Chungganhaewool-tang (CHT) and Shipyeukmiyeugi-eum (SYE), and THP-1 cells, differentiated into macrophage and induced inflammation with Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), were used to measure production amounts of ROS, Nitric oxide (NO), and protein expression amounts of Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), Cyclooxygenase (COX-2), Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of CHT and SYE. Results: CHT and SYE reduced MDA-MB-231 cell counts, increased protein expression of Bax and Cytochrome C, and decreased protein expression of Bcl-2, Bcl-xl. The protein expression amounts of Caspase-3, 7, and 9 decreased, but amounts of the active form, cleaved Caspase-3, 7, and 9, increased. In addition, PARP protein expression decreased, the amount of PARP protein in the cleaved form increased, and the amount of protein expressions of Nrf2 and HO-1 decreased, but NQO1 showed no significant difference. In THP-1 cells CHT and SYE reduced ROS and NO, and reduced protein expressions of iNOS, COX-2, IL-1, and TNF-α, but only SYE groups reduced IL-6. Conclusions: This study suggests that CHT and SYE have potential to be used as treatments for breast cancer.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Bitter taste receptors are taste signaling pathway mediators, and are also expressed and function in extra-gustatory organs. Skin aging affects the quality of life and may lead to medical issues. The purpose of this study was to better understand the anti-skin aging effects of bitter taste receptors in D-galactose (D-gal)-induced aged human keratinocytes, HaCaT cells. MATERIALS/METHODS: Expressions of bitter taste receptors in HaCaT cells and mouse skin tissues were examined by polymerase chain reaction assay. Bitter taste receptor was overexpressed in HaCaT cells, and D-gal was treated to induce aging. We examined the effects of bitter taste receptors on aging by using β-galactosidase assay, wound healing assay, and Western blot assay. RESULTS: TAS2R16 and TAS2R10 were expressed in HaCaT cells and were upregulated by D-gal treatment. TAS2R16 exerted protective effects against skin aging by regulating p53 and p21, antioxidant enzymes, the SIRT1/mechanistic target of rapamycin pathway, cell migration, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers. TAS2R10 was further examined to confirm a role of TAS2R16 in cellular senescence and wound healing in D-gal-induced aged HaCaT cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest a novel potential preventive role of these receptors on skin aging by regulating cellular senescence and wound healing in human keratinocyte, HaCaT.

• Anatomy and Cell Biology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.86-93
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• 2023

Age at death estimation has always been a crucial yet challenging part of identification process in forensic field. The use of human skeletons have long been explored using the principle of macro and micro-architecture change in correlation with increasing age. The clavicle is recommended as the best candidate for accurate age estimation because of its accessibility, time to maturation and minimal effect from weight. Our study applies pre-trained convolutional neural network in order to achieve the most accurate and cost effective age estimation model using clavicular bone. The total of 988 clavicles of Thai population with known age and sex were radiographed using Kodak 9000 Extra-oral Imaging System. The radiographs then went through preprocessing protocol which include region of interest selection and quality assessment. Additional samples were generated using generative adversarial network. The total clavicular images used in this study were 3,999 which were then separated into training and test set, and the test set were subsequently categorized into 7 age groups. GoogLeNet was modified at two layers and fine tuned the parameters. The highest validation accuracy was 89.02% but the test set achieved only 30% accuracy. Our results show that the use of medial clavicular radiographs has a potential in the field of age at death estimation, thus, further study is recommended.

• Korean Circulation Journal
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.699-711
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• 2022

Background and Objectives: We investigated whether extra-pulmonary vein (PV) ablation targeting a high maximal slope of the action potential duration restitution curve (Smax) improves the rhythm outcome of persistent atrial fibrillation (PeAF) ablation. Methods: In this open-label, multi-center, randomized, and controlled trial, 178 PeAF patients were randomized with 1:1 ratio to computational modeling-guided virtual Smax ablation (V-Smax) or empirical ablation (E-ABL) groups. Smax maps were generated by computational modeling based on atrial substrate maps acquired during clinical procedures in sinus rhythm. Smax maps were generated during the clinical PV isolation (PVI). The V-Smax group underwent an additional extra-PV ablation after PVI targeting the virtual high Smax sites. Results: After a mean follow-up period of 12.3±5.2 months, the clinical recurrence rates (25.6% vs. 23.9% in the V-Smax and the E-ABL group, p=0.880) or recurrence appearing as atrial tachycardia (11.1% vs. 5.7%, p=0.169) did not differ between the 2 groups. The post-ablation cardioversion rate was higher in the V-Smax group than E-ABL group (14.4% vs. 5.7%, p=0.027). Among antiarrhythmic drug-free patients (n=129), the AF freedom rate was 78.7% in the V-Smax group and 80.9% in the E-ABL group (p=0.776). The total procedure time was longer in the V-Smax group (p=0.008), but no significant difference was found in the major complication rates (p=0.497) between the groups. Conclusions: Unlike a dominant frequency ablation, the computational modeling-guided V-Smax ablation did not improve the rhythm outcome of the PeAF ablation and had a longer procedure time.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.383-394
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• 2014

The surface sediments from the manganese nodule exploration area of Korea in the Clarion-Clipperton fracture zone were investigated to understand the resource potential of and emplacement mechanism for rare earth elements (REEs). The sediments are categorized into three lithological units (Unit I, II and III from top to bottom), but into two groups (Unit I/II and Unit III) based on the distribution pattern of REEs. The distribution pattern of REEs in Unit I/II is similar to that of Post-Archean Australian Shale (PAAS), but shows a negative Ce anomaly and enrichment in heavy REEs (HREEs). In Unit III, the HREE enrichment and Ce anomaly is much more remarkable than Unit I/II when normalized to PAAS, which are interpreted as resulting from the absorption of REEs from seawater by Fe oxyhydroxides that were transported along the buoyant plume from remotely-located hydrothermal vents. It is supported by the PAAS-normalized REE pattern of Unit III which is similar to those of seawater and East Pacific Rise sediments. Meanwhile, the PAAS-normalized REE pattern of Unit I/II is explained by the 4:1 mixing of terrestrial eolian sediment and Unit III from each, indicating the much smaller contribution of hydrothermal origin material to Unit I/II. The studied sediments have the potentiality of a low-grade and large tonnage REE resource. However, the mining of REE-bearing sediment needs a large size extra collecting, lifting and treatment system to dress and refine low-grade sediments if the sediment is exploited with manganese nodules. It is economically infeasible to develop low-grade REE sediments at this moment in time because the exploitation of REE-bearing sediments with manganese nodules increase the mining cost.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1413-1420
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• 2014

Phytate is an antinutritional factor that impacts the bioavailability of essential minerals such as $Ca^{2+}$, $Mg^{2+}$, $Mn^{2+}$, $Zn^{2+}$, and $Fe^{2+}$ by forming insoluble mineral-phytate salts. These insoluble mineral-phytate salts are hydrolyzed rarely by monogastric animals, because they lack the hydrolyzing phytases and thus excrete the majority of them. The ${\beta}$-propeller phytases (BPPs) hydrolyze these insoluble mineral-phytate salts efficiently. In this study, we cloned a novel BPP gene from a marine Pseudomonas sp. This Pseudomonas BPP gene (PsBPP) had low sequence identity with other known phytases and contained an extra internal repeat domain (residues 24-279) and a typical BPP domain (residues 280-634) at the C-terminus. Structure-based sequence alignment suggested that the N-terminal repeat domain did not possess the active-site residues, whereas the C-terminal BPP domain contained multiple calcium-binding sites, which provide a favorable electrostatic environment for substrate binding and catalytic activity. Thus, we overexpressed the BPP domain from Pseudomonas sp. to potentially hydrolyze insoluble mineral-phytate salts. Purified recombinant PsBPP required $Ca^{2+}$ or $Fe^{2+}$ for phytase activity, indicating that PsBPP hydrolyzes insoluble $Fe^{2+}$-phytate or $Ca^{2+}$-phytate salts. The optimal temperature and pH for the hydrolysis of $Ca^{2+}$-phytate by PsBPP were $50^{\circ}C$ and 6.0, respectively. Biochemical and kinetic studies clearly showed that PsBPP efficiently hydrolyzed $Ca^{2+}$-phytate salts and yielded myo-inositol 2,4,6-trisphosphate and three phosphate groups as final products. Finally, we showed that PsBPP was highly effective for hydrolyzing rice bran with high phytate content. Taken together, our results suggest that PsBPP has great potential in the animal feed industry for reducing phytates.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.1147-1153
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• 2000

A total of 9,540 pigs were evaluated for their growth performance to provide information on the development of different feeding strategies to support maximum rate of protein deposition (PD). Large variations in growth performance and protein deposition rate were found in the population used in this study (ADG from 701 to 974 g/day; ADFI from 1,726 to 2,498 g/day; Feed/gain from 2.10 to 2.90; Backfat thickness from 12.4 to 20.5 mm and PD rate from 103 to 153 g/day). It was found that ADG was positively correlated to PD ($R^2=0.9362$, p<0.0001) while FCR was negatively correlated to PD ($R^2=0.4031$, p<0.0001). Backfat thickness was negatively correlated to PD ($R^2=0.7024$, p<0.0001) and to ADG ($R^2=0.5096$, p<0.0001). The estimated lysine requirement based on PD rate also showed large variation (12.37 to 18.38 g/day true ileal digestible lysine on average between 25 and 100 kg), thus strongly indicated the need of separate feeding strategies for each group of pigs. When pigs were divided into three categories according to estimated whole body PD rate, the group of pigs with the highest PD rate grew faster by 6.3 and 13.9% than pigs with intermediate and low PD rate, respectively. Feed utilization was also more efficient in pigs with a high PD rate. It appeared that pigs with high PD rate maintained higher PD rate especially in the later stage of their life. Pigs with high PD rate require an extra amount of 1.2 and 2.4 g/true digestible lysine per day and 0.4 and 0.8% more lysine in the diet than pigs with intermediate and low PD rate during the growing-finishing period respectively. Results of this study suggest that there is a need for separate feeding strategies for individual group of pigs with different PD rate. It should be noted that average value for each group presented in this report is not the adequate amount for an animals potential for maximum PD rate. With recent development in growth modeling and access to computer technologies to facilitate computation, pork producers can easily estimate pigs protein deposition rate and thus can make their own feeding strategies.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.148-154
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• 2005

Since the output of retina for visual stimulus is carried by neurons of very diverse functional properties, it is not adequate to use conventional single electrode for recording the retinal action potential. For this purpose, we used newly developed multichannel recording system for monitoring the simultaneous electrical activities of many neurons in a functioning piece of retina. Retinal action potentials are recorded with an extra-cellular planar array of 60 microelectrodes. In studying the collective activity of the ganglion cell population it is essential to recognize basic functional distinctions between individual neurons. Therefore, it is necessary to detect and to classify the action potential of each ganglion cell out of mixed signal. We programmed M-files with MATLAB for this sorting process. This processing is mandatory for further analysis, e.g. poststimulus time histogram (PSTH), auto-correlogram, and cross-correlogram. We established MATLAB based protocol for waveform classification and verified that this approach was effective as an initial spike sorting method.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.228-236
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• 2004

Retinal ganglion cells transmit visual scene as an action potential to visual cortex through optic nerve. Conventional recording method using single intra- or extra-cellular electrode enables us to understand the response of specific neuron on specific time. Therefore, it is not possible to determine how the nerve impulses in the population of retinal ganglion cells collectively encode the visual stimulus with conventional recording. This requires recording the simultaneous electrical signals of many neurons. Recent advances in multi-electrode recording have brought us closer to understanding how visual information is encoded by population of retinal ganglion cells. We examined how ganglion cells act together to encode a visual scene with multi-electrode array (MEA). With light stimulation (on duration: 2 sec, off duration: 5 sec) generated on a color monitor driven by custom-made software, we isolated three functional types of ganglion cell activities; ON (35.0$\pm$4.4%), OFF (31.4$\pm$1.9%), and ON/OFF cells (34.6$\pm$5.3%) (Total number of retinal pieces = 8). We observed that nearby neurons often fire action potential near synchrony (< 1 ms). And this narrow correlation is seen among cells within a cluster which is made of 6～8 cells. As there are many more synchronized firing patterns than ganglion cells, such a distributed code might allow the retina to compress a large number of distinct visual messages into a small number of ganglion cells.