• Title/Summary/Keyword: International Agricultural Development

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Biomedical Application of Silk Sericin: Recent Research Trend

  • Seong-Gon Kim;Je-Yong Choi;HaeYong Kweon
    • International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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    • v.48 no.1
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    • pp.1-12
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    • 2024
  • Silk sericin, a natural protein from silkworm cocoons, is emerging as a multifunctional biomaterial in biomedicine, particularly in tissue engineering and wound healing. Recent studies have highlighted its biocompatibility, biodegradability, and potential for chemical modification, which allows it to be incorporated into various scaffold architectures. This review article synthesizes current research, including the development of sericin-based hydrogel scaffolds for tissue engineering and sericin's role in enhancing wound healing. Key findings demonstrate sericin's ability to refine scaffold porosity and mechanical strength, expedite tissue healing, and reduce bacterial load in wounds. The integration of sericin into novel bioactive dressings and its use in peripheral nerve injury repair are also discussed, showcasing its adaptability and efficacy. The convergence of these studies illustrates the broad applications of sericin, from scaffold design to clinical interventions, making it a promising material in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, with the potential to improve patient outcomes significantly.

Does the nuclear engineering field perform worse in utilizing women? Evidence from South Korea

  • Jihye Kam;Sungyeol Choi;Soohyung Lee
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.56 no.7
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    • pp.2676-2682
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    • 2024
  • Despite its remarkable socioeconomic development, South Korea underperforms in terms of female labor force participation and women in leadership positions. As women appear to avoid nuclear engineering, we aim to evaluate its relative performance in attracting women to its labor force compared to other college majors. Using college-major level information from 2000, we test whether the female faculty share in nuclear engineering is lower than its counterparts. Although nuclear engineering has one of the lowest female faculty shares, its share exceeds that of agricultural science, business and economics, chemical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering, and industrial engineering once we properly control for gender composition among students and other compounding factors. In other words, once female students major in nuclear engineering, they are less likely to leave their fields compared to their counterparts in other disciplines. This result implies that if the nuclear engineering field aims to attract more women to its workforce, it is important to target them from the early stage of their careers.

Forest Canopy Density Estimation Using Airborne Hyperspectral Data

  • Kwon, Tae-Hyub;Lee, Woo-Kyun;Kwak, Doo-Ahn;Park, Tae-Jin;Lee, Jong-Yoel;Hong, Suk-Young;Guishan, Cui;Kim, So-Ra
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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    • v.28 no.3
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    • pp.297-305
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    • 2012
  • This study was performed to estimate forest canopy density (FCD) using airborne hyperspectral data acquired in the Independence Hall of Korea in central Korea. The airborne hyperspectral data were obtained with 36 narrow spectrum ranges of visible (Red, Green, and Blue) and near infrared spectrum (NIR) scope. The FCD mapping model developed by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) uses vegetation index (VI), bare soil index (BI), shadow index (SI), and temperature index (TI) for estimating FCD. Vegetation density (VD) was calculated through the integration of VI and BI, and scaled shadow index (SSI) was extracted from SI after the detection of black soil by TI. Finally, the FCD was estimated with VD and SSI. For the estimation of FCD in this study, VI and SI were extracted from hyperspectral data. But BI and TI were not available from hyperspectral data. Hyperspectral data makes the numerous combination of each band for calculating VI and SI. Therefore, the principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to find which band combinations are explanatory. This study showed that forest canopy density can be efficiently estimated with the help of airborne hyperspectral data. Our result showed that most forest area had 60 ~ 80% canopy density. On the other hand, there was little area of 10 ~ 20% canopy density forest.

Molecular Cloning of Cytochrome P450 Family Gene Fragment from Midgut of the Beet Armyworm, Spodoptera exigua

  • Moon, Jae-Yu;Lee, Pyeongjae;Cho, Il-Je;Kim, Iksoo;Lee, Heui-Sam
    • International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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    • v.4 no.2
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    • pp.155-162
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    • 2002
  • Cytochrome P45O (CYP) gene has been known to play one of the most important roles in metabolizing the exogenous materials. In insect, CYP is particularly known to detoxify toxic materials by adding oxygen molecule to the hydrophobic region of the materials. Thus, CYP-dependent metabolism is associated with the adaptation of insect to host plant chemicals. This in turn is known to be one of the driving forces for CYP diversification. In the present study, we cloned seven gene fragments of CYP 4 (CYP4) family from the midgut of the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, through RT.PCT, Sequence analysis of the product showed the gene fragment to contain an open reading frame of ~150 amino acids, consisted of ~450 bp. The cloned gene fragments contained typical, conserved regions found in CYP4 family. Pairwise comparison of the deduced amino acid sequences among seven clones ranged in divergence from 0% to 52.86% and resulted in five distinct clones. The other two clones were identical or differ by one amino acid respectively to the corresponding clone, although each differed by ten nucleotides. Analysis of correlation between GenBank-registered, full length CYP4 and the cloned fragments resulted in statistically significant relationship ($r^{2}$ = 0.96085; p < 0.001), suggesting utility of the partial sequences as such full-length sequences. Phylogenetic analysis of the clones with GenBank-registered insect and mammal CYP4 family sequences by parsimony and several distance methods subdivided the clones into two groups: tones belonging to CYP4S and the others to CYP4M families.

Incidence of Viral Diseases and Occurrence of Three Unreported Viruses in Yams in Korea

  • Lee, Joong-Hwan;Park, Chung Youl;Cho, Ha-Jeong;Oh, Jonghee;Kim, Bong-Sub;Park, Eun Hey;Son, Chang-Gi;Lee, Su-Heon
    • Research in Plant Disease
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    • v.23 no.1
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    • pp.82-87
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    • 2017
  • During 2012 to 2014, a survey for the presence of viral diseases in yam plants was carried out in a field of the Institute for Bioresources Research in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea. A total of 88 leaf samples were collected and tested by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction using specific primer sets. Eighty-one samples were positive for Broad bean wilt virus 2 (BBWV2), Chinese yam necrotic mosaic virus (ChYNMV), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), Japanese yam mosaic virus (JYMV), and Yam mild mosaic virus (YMMV), whereas Yam mosaic virus (YMV) was not detected. Additionally, seven samples were negative for all viruses. Several samples exhibited mixed (double and triple) infections. Three viruses (CMV, JYMV, and YMMV) were detected for the first time in yam plants in Korea. A BLAST search showed that three viruses shared nucleotide identities with CMV-Ca (98%), JYMV-O2 (91%), and YMMV-TG_NH_1 (86%). Thus, our findings confirmed that yam plants cultivated in Korea were infected with multiple viruses with three of these viruses reported for the first time in Korea.

Development of PCR-base Diagnostic System for the Detection of Andean potato latent virus (Andean potato latent virus 검출을 위한 PCR 기반 진단시스템 개발)

  • Lee, Jin-Young;Kim, Jin-Ho;Kim, Eunsil;Lee, Siwon
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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    • v.42 no.2
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    • pp.105-109
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    • 2015
  • Andean potato latent virus (APLV) is a phytopathogenic virus that belongs to the Group IV (+) sense ssRNA viruses of the genus Tymovirus. It mainly infects potatoes and is specified as a controlled quarantine virus in Korea. In this study, two primer sets of RT-PCR and nested PCR [set 2 ($404{\rightarrow}259bp$) and set 23 ($501{\rightarrow}349bp$)], were selected, which can rapidly and accurately diagnose APLV in quarantine sites. In addition, a modified-positive control plasmid is development, can possible verification of laboratory contamination in diagnosis of APLV detection. The PCR-base system developed in this study is expected to diagnose APLV and contribute to the plant quarantine in Korea.

A study on the direction of Korean official development assistance in forestry (한국 임업부문 공적개발원조의 방향성에 대한 연구)

  • Yoon, Jun-Young;Park, Gwan-Soo;Kim, Se-Bin;Lee, Jun-Woo;Sung, Yong-Joo;Lee, Sang-Jin;Park, Beom-Hwan;Jang, Gwan-Woo
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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    • v.40 no.1
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    • pp.19-26
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    • 2013
  • Official Delvelopment Assistance(ODA) in forestry sector has been implemented for about 60 years after the second world war. Forestry aid is getting important due to its role to play as a practical methodology of Millenium Development Goals(MDGs). Korea has conducted ODA in forestry in 22 developing countries since 2005. However its contents are mostly focused on environment conservation by plantation. In the other hands, the other donor countries try to eradicate poverty of people who are dependent on forestry, environment conservation and etc in MDGs by means of ODA in forestry. Swiss, Germany, Japan, UK, and the other donor counties found out without taking account of forest dependent people who are supposed to manage 22% of developing countries's forest, forestry aid could not be successful. The direction of Korean ODA in forestry need to change in order to meet the current movement of International ODA. For this, Korea should develop various contents of forestry aids like CF (Community Forestry) project which the donor countries with long history of forestry aids have implemented in many ways.

Quantification and comparison of functional phytochemicals in steamed and freeze-dried mature silkworm powders and freeze-dried mulberry leaves

  • Choi, Bo-Hye;Ji, Sang-Deok;Jeong, Ju-Hee;Kim, Kee-Young;Koh, Young Ho
    • International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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    • v.35 no.2
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    • pp.89-96
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    • 2017
  • Various health promoting effects of steamed and freeze-dried mature silkworm powder (SMSP) have been reported. However, it is not still clear which substances in SMSP are responsible for those health promoting effects yet. In this study, we examined and compared the quantities of phytochemicals in SMSP and freeze-dried mulberry leave powder (FMLP). To investigate the optimal solvent for extracting phytochemicals from SMSP and FMLP, we used four different solvents. Among them, 80% ethanol extracts from SMSP and FMLP contained the highest amount of five flavonoids examined. In addition, FMLP had high contents of flavonoids compared with those of SMSP. The amounts of rutin, isoquercetin, astragalin, quercetin, and kaempferol in FMLP were $5.078{\pm}0.187mg/g$, $5.162{\pm}0.083mg/g$, $2.989{\pm}0.061mg/g$, $3.317{\pm}0.236mg/g$, and $2.243{\pm}0.237mg/g$, respectively, while the amounts of rutin, isoquercetin, astragalin, quercetin, and kaempferol in SMSP were $0.171{\pm}0.024mg/g$, $0.252{\pm}0.032mg/g$, $0.374{\pm}0.031mg/g$, $0.645{\pm}0.063mg/g$, and $0.0512{\pm}0.047mg/g$, respectively. Taken together, SMSP could be a source for providing various and readily absorbable flavonoids.

Effects of Dietary Supplementation with Ptecticus tenebrifer Powder on the Mortality Rate and Meat Quality of Korean Native Chickens (동애등에 분말 사료 급여가 토종닭의 폐사율과 육질에 미치는 영향)

  • Park, Kwan-Ho;Kim, Yong-Soon;Choi, In-Hag;Chung, Tae-Ho
    • Journal of Environmental Science International
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    • v.31 no.5
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    • pp.457-460
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    • 2022
  • This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with Ptecticus tenebrifer powder on the mortality and meat quality of Korean native chickens. A total of 40,000 Korean native chickens (1 day old, Hanhyup No. 3) were allocated to two dietary treatments (20,000 chickens in each treatment), which were fed the following: basal diet (control) and 1% of Ptecticus tenebrifer powder (T1). Feeding trials were conducted for 12 weeks, and mortality was measured weekly. At the end of the experimental period, 16 chickens (8 chickens in each treatment) were selected and slaughtered to obtain breast meat. The items used to analyze meat quality were pH, TBARS, and meat color. The weekly mortality rate was decreased by around 2 to 3 times in the T1 treatment group compared with the control group. The pH, TBARS, L*, and b* values of Korean native chicken breast were not affected by Ptecticus tenebrifer powder supplementation (p>0.05); however, a* values showed statistical significance (p<0.05). In conclusion, the addition of 1% Ptecticus tenebrifer powder reduced mortality rate and demonstrated its potential in livestock environmental management.

Factors Effect on Income-Gap Between Urban and Rural Area in China (중국 도·농 간 소득격차에 영향을 미치는 요인)

  • Nan, Xue Feng;Na, Seung-hwa
    • The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.21-41
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    • 2015
  • The purpose of the study is to review the real situations of the income-gap between urban and rural areas which is focused on as one of the biggest issues revealed in the process of Chinese economic development and to find out which factors will alleviate or deteriorate such income-gap, also to find out such factors will effect differently on the regional characteristics. To analyze it, six factors such as industrialization-ratio, urbanization-ratio, tertiary industry-ratio, the level of both governmental educational support and agricultural support, and Chinese dual-economic structure are considered as explanatory variables, and OLS regression analysis was implemented to the factor data for the period of 1986-2007 about Chinese 31 districts(castles and cities). The results of the analysis show that both industrialization factors and urbanization factors affect significantly to alleviate income-gap between urban and rural areas, and as predicted, they also shows that dual-economic structure between urban and rural areas is the most biggest factors to enlarge the above mentioned income-gap. However, in accordance to the different level of economic development in eastern, central, and western districts the study shows that such factors will affect them differently respectively. The contents are as follows; In eastern district governmental educational support factor will affect the most great influence to alleviate the income-gap, in central district industrialization factor will affect the most great influence to alleviate the gap, and western district governmental agricultural support factor will affect the most great influence to alleviate the gap. Therefore, in solving the issue of income-gap between urban and rural areas in China we recommend that it is necessary for more differential policy in considering regional characteristics than unilateral policy to Chinese whole areas.