• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.99-105
• /
• 2006

The growing oocytes become progressively capable of resuming meiosis, and full meiotic competence appear when they are about 80% of the size of fully grown oocytes. As hormonal influences vary at different stages of reproductive cycle, the size of oocytes may vary according to the reproductive stages. The present study was designed to compare the diameter between the ovulated and freshly collected immature canine oocytes. The ovulated oocytes were collected 72 hr after ovulation by oviductal tube flushing by laparotomy under general anesthesia. Immature oocytes were collected by ovarian slicing method. Diameter of all oocytes was measured directly using epiflurescence microscope with a calibrated micro-eyepiece micrometer at ${\times}200$ magnification. The thickness of zona pellucida and diameter of cytoplasm were measured separately and recorded. A total of 2209 zona intact oocytes were collected, among them 628 from anestrus, 675 from follicular, 838 from luteal and 68 by fallopian tubes flushing methods. The average number of oocytes was 104.7, 168.8, 119.7 and 11.3 for anestrus, follicular, luteal and fallopian tubes flushing methods, respectively. The average diameters of the ooplasm and oocyte were significantly varied in different reproductive stages as well as with ovulated oocytes (P<0.05). The average diameter of ooplasm and oocyte was 115.6 and 127.7, 143.0 and 162.0, 134.6 and 150.6, 159.6 and 185.6 for anestrus, follicular, luteal and ovulated oocytes, respectively. Highest number of oocytes with larger diameter could be collected from the follicular and luteal stages. In conclusion, the follicular and luteal ovaries are the best sources of oocytes for canine IVM.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.97-109
• /
• 2011

As a marketing vehicle to survive in intensified retailing competition, retailer brand development has been adopted by retailers in Korea. As evidence, the retailer brand share of a major retailer, Tesco Korea, has grown from 20% in 2007 to 22.8% in the first half of 2008. It means that retailers have provided more and more retailer brand foods for customers. With the growing accessibility to retailer brand foods, it would be expected that the number of retailer brand food claims will increase. Customers have increasingly exposed to a variety of marketing activities conducted by retailers. When buying the retailer brand foods, customers tend to be affected by marketing activities of retailers. Despite the fact that customers trust retailers and then, buy their brand foods, in case of food accidents caused by production process, customers have to seek compensation from a retailer brand supplier. Of course, a retailer tends to shift its responsibility to its suppliers. Accordingly, it is not easy for customers to solve food claims. The research, therefore, aims at exploring the relationship between the buying-decision processes of retailer brand customers and which side takes legal responsibility for food claims. To effectively achieve the research aim, the author adopted a quantitative and a qualitative research technique, in order to supplement the disadvantages of each method. Before field research, based on the developed research model, the author pre-tested questionnaire with 10 samples, amended, and handed out to 400 samples. Amongst them, 316 questionnaires are available. For a focus group interview, 9 participants were recruited, who are students, housewives, and full-time workers, aged from 20s to 40s. Through the focus group interview as well as the questionnaire results, it was found that most customers were influenced by a retailer or store image in a customer's mind, retailer reputation and promotional activities. Surprisingly, customers think that the name of a retailer is a more important factor than who produces retailer brand foods, even though many customers check a retailer brand supplier, when making a buying-decision. Rather than retailer brand suppliers, customers trust retailers. That is why they purchase retailer brands. Nevertheless, production-related food claims is not involved with retailers. In fact, it would be difficult for customers to distinguish whether a food claim is related to selling or manufacturing processes. Based on research results, from a customer perspective, the research suggests that the government should require retailers to take the whole responsibility for retailer brand food claims, preventing retailers from passing the buck to retailer brand suppliers. In case of food claims, in order for customers to easily get the compensation, it is necessary to reconsider the current system. If so, retailers have to fully get involved in retailer brand production stage, and further, the customer awareness of retailer brands will be improved than ever before. Retailers cannot help taking care of the whole processes of retailer brand development, because of responsibility. As a result, the process to seek compensation for food claims might become easier, and further, the protection of customer right might be improved.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.55 no.2
• /
• pp.139-143
• /
• 2010

The relationship between ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGP) activity and the characteristics of related pod setting in developing seed of soybean cv. Pungsannamulkong, Iksannamulkong, Geumjeongkong #1 and Danpaheuk was studied. AGP activity during the accumulate of the majority of dry matter in all cultivars suggested that this enzyme might be associated with this process. At the Vn and R1 stages, AGP activity of full-grown leaves of Pungsannamulkong, Iksannamulkong, Geumjeongkong #1 was the highest and then decreased progressively. However AGP activity of Danpaheuk was the lowest and also had lower seed weight. So regulation of matter accumulation in developing soybean seeds may also depend on AGP activity. AGP capacities as expressed by AGP activity seem to have a good predicting value for the dry matter of leaf and seed at R1 to R5 stages in our series of R3 stage genotypes. Western blots probed with antibody specific to the subunit of potato AGP revealed a single 60KD immunoreactive band that changed in intensity during the growth cycle in association with changes in total AGP activity.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.191-201
• /
• 2011

Soybean has widely grown for its edible bean which has numerous uses. Microwave remote sensing has a great potential over the conventional remote sensing with the visible and infrared spectra due to its all-weather day-and-night imaging capabilities. In this investigation, a ground-based polarimetric scatterometer operating at multiple frequencies was used to continuously monitor the crop conditions of a soybean field. Polarimetric backscatter data at L, C, and X-bands were acquired every 10 minutes on the microwave observations at various soybean stages. The polarimetric scatterometer consists of a vector network analyzer, a microwave switch, radio frequency cables, power unit and a personal computer. The polarimetric scatterometer components were installed inside an air-conditioned shelter to maintain constant temperature and humidity during the data acquisition period. The backscattering coefficients were calculated from the measured data at incidence angle $40^{\circ}$ and full polarization (HH, VV, HV, VH) by applying the radar equation. The soybean growth data such as leaf area index (LAI), plant height, fresh and dry weight, vegetation water content and pod weight were measured periodically throughout the growth season. We measured the temporal variations of backscattering coefficients of the soybean crop at L, C, and X-bands during a soybean growth period. In the three bands, VV-polarized backscattering coefficients were higher than HH-polarized backscattering coefficients until mid-June, and thereafter HH-polarized backscattering coefficients were higher than VV-, HV-polarized back scattering coefficients. However, the cross-over stage (HH > VV) was different for each frequency: DOY 200 for L-band and DOY 210 for both C and X-bands. The temporal trend of the backscattering coefficients for all bands agreed with the soybean growth data such as LAI, dry weight and plant height; i.e., increased until about DOY 271 and decreased afterward. We plotted the relationship between the backscattering coefficients with three bands and soybean growth parameters. The growth parameters were highly correlated with HH-polarization at L-band (over r=0.92).