• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.45 no.9
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• pp.1126-1133
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• 2002

Purpose : Prader-Willi syndrome(PWS) is a complex disorder affecting multisystems with characteristic clinical features. Its genetic basis is an expression defect in the paternally derived chromosome 15q11-q13. We analyzed the clinical features and genetic basis of PWS patients for early detection and treatment. Methods : We retrospectively studied 24 patients with PWS in Department of Pediatrics, Samsung Medical Center, from September 1997 to September 2001. We performed cytogenetic and molecular genetic techniques using high resolution GTG banding techniques, fluorescent in situ hybridization and methylation-specific PCR for CpG island of SNRPN gene region. Results : The average birth weight of PWS patients was $2.67{\pm}0.47kg$ and median age at diagnosis was 1.3 years. The average height and weight of PWS patients under one year at diagnostic time were located in a 3-10 percentile relatively, and a rapid weight gain was seen between two and six years. Feeding problems in infancy and neonatal hypotonia were the two most consistently positive major criteria in over 95% of the patients. In 18 of the 24 cases(75%), deletion of chromosome 15q11-q13 was demonstrated and one case among 18 had an unbalanced 14;15 translocation. In four cases without any cytogenetic abnormality, it may be considered as maternal uniparental disomy and the rest showed another findings. Conclusion : We suggest diagnostic testing for PWS in all infants/neonates with unexplained feeding problems and hypotonia. It is necessary for clinically suspicious patients to undergo an early genetic test. As the genetic basis of PWS was heterogenous and complex, further study is required.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.1190-1199
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of exercise training and oak tree wood vinegar ingestion on the blood lipids and antioxidant activities of rats. The subjects were 28 Sprague Dawley male rats, and they were assigned into four groups (n=7, respectively): the control group (CON), the exercise group (EXE), the vinegar ingestion group (VIN), and the vinegar ingestion and exercise training group (VINEXE). The diet was based on high fat and oral administration of oak tree wood vinegar. The rats that were not given oak tree wood vinegar were given the same amount of distilled water orally in order to maintain the same level of stress. They were exercise trained on motor-driven treadmills during a four-week session. Weight changes in the VINEXE were significantly inhibited in the later period of exercise, when compared to the CON (p<0.05). Fat increase was significantly suppressed in VIN and EXE (p<0.05), and a synergistic effect was discovered in the VINEXE (p<0.05). Glucose and ammonia levels were significantly reduced in the EXE, VIN, and VINEXE compared to the CON (p<0.05). In blood lipids, TC and LDL-C were significantly enhanced in the EXE, VIN, and VINEXE compared to the CON (p<0.05), while HDL-C was significantly improved in the EXE and VINEXE (p<0.05). Liver MDA contents showed significant changes in each group (p<0.05), and SOD activities were significantly enhanced in the VIN and the VINEXE when compared to other groups (p<0.05). Therefore, oak tree wood vinegar ingestion with exercise training for four weeks may result in inhibition of weight gain, improvement of blood lipids, and inhibition of lipid peroxidation, contributing to health promotion.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.207-215
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• 2007

This work was carried out to assess the effect of microbial phytase (MP) on the performance, retention and excretion of phosphorus, and nutrients availability in broiler chicks. Two hundred and sixteen one day old Ross strains broiler chicks were used to investigate on performance for 5 weeks (earlier $(0{\sim}2wk)$, finisher $(3{\sim}5wk)$) and were divided 3 treatments, three cages per treatment and 12 birds per cage. Treatments are P0 (basal diet), P1 (microbial phytase 300 FTU/kg), and P2 (microbial phytase 600 FTU/kg). After 5 weeks, three diets containing 0, 300, 600 FTU/kg of microbial phytase were fed to 5-wk-old broilers to assess the digestibility. Twenty seven broilers were divided into 3 treatments (9 birds per treatment) to investigate on the absorption and retention of phosphorus and nutrient digestibility. Body weight gain and feed efficiency were highly significant at P1 and P2 treatments compared to those of P0 (P<0.05), however, feed intake was no significant difference among all treatments (P>0.05). The excretion of phosphorus decreased in P1 and P2 compared to P0 (P<0.05). The digestibility of nutrients and amino acid was high in P1 and P2 treatments compared to P0 (P<0.05). Ileal digestibility was lower about $1{\sim}2%$ than feces digestibility (P>0.05). Finally, microbial phytase influenced on the performance, the retention and excretion of phosphorus and ileal and feces digestibility in broilers.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.93-102
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• 2016

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) system, bi-direction power trading technology, enables drivers possessing electric vehicle to sell the spare electricity charged in the vehicle to power distribution company. The drivers gain profit by charging electricity in the day time of high electricity rate. In this regard, the government is preparing the policies of building and supporting V2G infrastructure and demanding the potential consumers' preference for the V2G system. This paper attempts to analyze the consumers' preference using the data from obtained a survey of randomly selected 1,000 individuals. To this end, choice experiment, an economic technique, is employed here. The attributes considered in the study are residual amount of electricity, electricity trading hours, required plug-in time, and price measured as an amount additional to current gasoline vehicle price. The multinomial logit model, which requires the assumption of 'independence of irrelevant alternatives', is applied but the assumption could not be satisfied in our data. Thus, we finally utilized nested logit model which does not require the assumption. All the parameter estimates in the utility function are statistically significant at the 10% level. The estimation results show that the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for one hour increase in electricity trading hours is estimated to be KRW 1,601,057. On the other hand, a one percent reduction in residual amount of electricity and one hour reduction in required plug-in time in V2G system are computed to be KRW -91,911 and -470,619, respectively. The findings can provide policy makers with useful information for decision-making about introducing and managing V2G system.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.147-156
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• 2015

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary resveratrol on growth performance, blood biochemical parameters, immunoglobulin, and blood antioxidant activity in broiler chicks. Three hundred twenty one-day old broiler chicks were divided 8 treatments (C(-), basal diet; C(+), basal diet with antibiotics; DL-${\alpha}$-tocopherol 20 IU; DL-${\alpha}$-tocopherol 200 IU; resveratrol 20 ppm; resveratrol 200 ppm; methylated resveratrol 20 ppm; methylated resveratrol 200 ppm) with 4 replicates and 10 birds per replicate. Birds were reared for 35 days, and, at the age of 35 days, eight birds of average weight from each replicate were selected for blood samples collection. There were no significant differences on feed intake and feed conversion ratio. But final body weight and weight gain in antibiotics, resveratrol and methylated resveratrol treatments were significantly higher than no-antibiotics and ${\alpha}$-tocopherol treatments (P<0.05). There were no significant differences on carcass rate and relative organ weights among treatments, however, weights of liver and bursa of februcius in antibiotics, resveratrol and methylated resveratrol treatment were lower than other treatments. Weight of pancreas was high in resveratrol and methylated treatment. On the cecal microflora (total microbes, Coliform bacteria, Salmonella spp., and lactic acid bacteria), these in resveratrol and methylated resveratrol treatments didn't show the differences compared with those in no-antibiotics, antibiotics, and ${\alpha}$-tocopherol treatments. In the serum, there were no significant differences on creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), total protein, albumin, globulin, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) among treatments, though globulin contents of reseveratrol 200 ppm and methylated resveratrol 20 ppm treatments decreased compared to those of other treatments. Immunoglobulin (IgA, IgG and IgM) were significantly decreased in antibiotics and resveratrol treatments compared to that of no-antibiotics and ${\alpha}$-tocopherol treatments (P<0.05). Superoxide dismutase (SOD) like activity tended to increase in resveratrol groups (P<0.05), however, there was no significant difference on malondiakdehyde (MDA) content among treatments. In conclusion, these results showed that resveratrol derived from mulberry can be used as alternative of antibiotics through improvement of broiler's performance and maintain of health.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.341-348
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• 2014

We investigated the anti-obesity and anti-hyperlipidemic effects of extracts of two roasted coffee beans (Vietnam robusta and Ethiopia mocha sidamo G2) and fermented coffee beans with Monascus rubber mycelium (MR) by solid-state culture. C57B/L6 mice were divided into seven groups: normal diet (ND) group, high fat diet (HFD) group, and HFD groups with hot water extracts from Vietnam robusta coffee beans (HFD-VR), MR-fermented Vietnam robusta coffee beans (HFD-VR-MR), MR-fermented Vietnam robusta coffee beans with 10% brown rice (HFD-VR-MR-BR10), Ethiopia mocha sidamo G2 coffee beans (HFD-ES), and MR-fermented Ethiopia mocha sidamo G2 coffee beans (HFD-ES-MR). After 6 weeks, body weight gain and food efficiency ratio were higher in the HFD group, but significantly reduced in the coffee extracts-fed groups. The HFD-ES-MR group showed greater body weight reduction than the HFD-ES group. The serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol levels as well as the atherogenic index and cardiac risk factor all tended to decrease in groups fed Vietnam robusta coffee extracts compared to the HFD group. These results suggest that Vietnam robusta and Ethiopia mocha sidamo G2 may be used to make functional coffee beverages with anti-obesity and anti-hyperlipidemic activities.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.78-87
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• 2013

In this study, the effect of extreme heat diet on growth performance, lymphoid organ, blood immunoglobulin and cecum microflora change in broilers exposed to continuous lighting and extreme heat stress (EHS) was studied. Broilers raised under normal environment temperature ($25^{\circ}C$ or extreme heat stress temperature ($33{\pm}2^{\circ}C$, and consumed chow diet (CD) or extreme heat stress diet (EHSD). Five hundred Ross 308 day-old commercial broilers were arranged in a completely randomized block design of 5 treatment groups with 4 repetitions (25 heads per repetition pen). The broilers were divided into: T1 (normal environment+CD), T2 (EHS+CD), T3 (EHS+EHSD in which the tallow in CD was substituted by soy oil and contained 5% molasses), T4 (EHS+EHSD in which the tallow in CD was substituted by soy oil and contained 5% molasses, and 1.5 times more methionine and lysine than CD), and T5 (EHS+EHSD in which the tallow in CD was substituted by soy oil, contained 5% molasses, 1.5 times more methionine and lysine than CD, and 300ppm of vitamin C). The EHS significantly reduced the body weight gain and feed intake. The blood immunoglobulin, bursa of Fabricius, thymus, and spleen weight were significantly reduced when broilers were exposed to EHS. Compared to the normal environment temperature group, the cecum Lactobacillus sp. was low in the EHS treatment group, while Escherichia sp., Salmonella sp. and total aerobic bacteria in the EHS treatment group were high. A statistically significant difference was acknowledged between the treatment groups.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2011

One of the major reasons for fierce competition among firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Due to such changes in the marketing environment, differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important in the race to gain a competitive advantage. Price discount is one of the popular promotion strategies that most retailers use, especially to increase sales, but offering a price discount does not always lead to the expected result. If marketers apply an identical price-promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in products and consumer preferences, the discounted price itself may make people skeptical about the quality of the product. Moreover, the changes in perceived value may appear differently depending on factors such as consumer involvement. This implies that variables such as the level of consumer involvement, brand loyalty, and external reference prices, in reality, would have different effects on how consumers perceive the value of price discounts. The variables that affect consumers' perceived values and buying decisions are diverse and complicated. Several studies have examined the effects of such variables as external reference price, selling price, and brand on consumers' perceived value of products. Results have not shown consistent patterns. Therefore, we must note that the factors affecting consumers' value perceptions and buying behaviors are diverse and that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what that variable is. This study focused on the level of consumer involvement as a salient variable that supposedly affects the perceived value of a product, willingness to buy, and search intentions. We tried to examine whether a price discount affects the perceived value-such as perceived acquisition value and perceived transaction value-in different ways depending on the level of consumer involvement. In addition, we proposed managerial implications that marketers need to consider as a whole, for instance, product attributes, brand loyalty, and involvement and then established a differentiated pricing strategy, case by case, in order to effectively enhance consumers' perceived values. As a result, we found that perceived transaction value positively affects perceived acquisition value and when discounting the price of a high-involvement product enhances the consumer's willingness to buy, but perceived acquisition value does not affect the search intentions significantly. In the case of discounting prices of low-involvement products, on the other hand, the perceived transaction value has a positive effect on the willingness to buy, but the negative effect of perceived acquisition value on the search intentions was not significant. We suppose that people doubt a product's quality because of a declined perceived quality derived from a price discount. Even though the price discount enhanced the transaction value, people eventually increased their level of searching for additional product information. From the results of this study, we suggest that marketers ought to establish an appropriate value-enhancing strategy based on the understanding of which perceived value consumers rely on more when they conduct purchasing behavior because consumers perceive the degree of importance of acquisition value or transaction value differently, depending on their level of involvement.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.804-811
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• 2008

Purpose : Childhood obesity is a problem that places a child at great risk for becoming an obese adult. To prevent obesity, it is important to focus on early life risk factors that may contribute to childhood obesity. The aim of this study is to find obesity-causing infantile risk factors in preschool children. Methods : A total of 223 children aged 3 to 5 years old from Busan were the subjects of this study. We calculated their body mass index (BMI) and classified them into two groups (normal weight and overweight/obese children). Information regarding parental weight and height, mother's educational level and employment status, birth weight, feeding patterns, start time of weaning, duration of night feeding, and fosterer was obtained by using questionnaires. Results : There were 68 (30.5%) overweight/obese children and 155 (69.5%) normal weight children. Overweight/obese children were significantly associated with formula milk feeding, rapid weight gain during the first 6 months, and maternal obesity (P<0.05). There were no statistical differences in paternal obesity, mothers educational level and employment status, birth weight, start time of weaning, duration of night feeding, and fosterer between the normal and overweight/obese children. Conclusion : Although healthy diet and regular exercise will remain the cornerstones of weight management in obese children, our data supports the view that education about maintaining a normal weight could be introduced much earlier in families with high-risk children.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.221-228
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• 2014

Purpose: Citron seed oil (CSO) has been reported to have high antioxidant activity. However, the composition and other biologically activities of CSO have not been reported. In this study, we confirmed the fatty acid composition of CSO, which may be beneficial to vascular disease and obesity. Methods: We investigated the oil composition of CSO using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, and cytotoxicity was confirmed by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. Nitric oxide (NO) production in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) was measured using Griess reagent, and lipid accumulation and leptin secretion in 3T3-L1 cells were measured by Oil-Red O staining and commercial ELISA kit, respectively. Results: GC-MS analysis indicated that CSO contains several components, including linoleic acid, oleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, linolenic acid, palmitoleic acid, and arachidic acid. In physiological activity analysis, CSO did not induce cytotoxic effects in HUVECs and 3T3-L1 cells. Further, CSO significantly induced nitric oxide and leptin secretion as well as inhibited lipid accumulation. Conclusion: CSO increased NO release, inhibited lipid accumulation, and induced leptin secretion, suggesting it may be useful for the management of vessels and weight gain. Although further studies are required to investigate the safety and mechanism of action of CSO, our results show that the composition and physiological activity of CSO are sufficient for its use as functional edible oil.