• Title/Summary/Keyword: Mexico

Search Result 648, Processing Time 0.039 seconds

Seasonal Dynamics of Enzymetic Activities and Functional Diversity in Soils under Different Organic Managements (시용 유기물을 달리한 토양에서 미생물 군락의 효소활성과 기능적 다양성의 계절적 변화)

  • Park, Kee-Choon;Kremer, Robert J.
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
    • /
    • v.42 no.4
    • /
    • pp.307-316
    • /
    • 2009
  • Soil microbial activity and diversity are affected by organic sources applied to improve soil quality and fluctuate seasonally. We investigated the effects of municipal compost (MC), poultry litter (PL), and cover crops of spring oats and red clover (RC) on soil enzyme activities, and soil bacterial community-level physiological profiling (CLPP) in a Mexico silt loam in North Central Missouri, USA. Temporal patterns of these parameters were observed by periodic five soil sampling from spring to fall over a two year period. MC increased soil dehydrogenase (DH) activity consistently beginning about three months after MC application; fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolytic activity significantly began to increase by the September of the first year but fluctuated during the following period. DH activity responded more directly to the amount or properties of organic residues in soils while FDA hydrolysis and CLPP were generally influenced by composition of organic sources, and enzyme activities and CLPP showed seasonal variation, which depended on organic sources and soil moisture. MC and cover crops may be useful organic sources for enhancing general soil microbial activity and altering soil microbial diversity, respectively. Because microbial activities and diversity are dynamic and subject to seasonal changes, the effects of organic amendments on these parameters should be investigated frequently during a growing season.

A Case of Coccidioidomycosis Manifested as Solitary Pulmonary Nodule (고립성 폐결절상을 보인 콕시디오이데스진균증 1예)

  • Yang, Hyun-Suk;Lee, Jae-Chun;Lim, Chae-Man;Lee, Sang-Do;Koh, Youn-Suck;Kim, Woo-Sung;Kim, Dong-Soon;Kim, Won-Dong;Son, Kwang-Hyun;Shim, Tae-Sun
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
    • /
    • v.46 no.2
    • /
    • pp.266-272
    • /
    • 1999
  • Coccidioidomycosis is a fungal infection acquired by inhalation of the arthrospore of Coccidioides immitis, and endemic disease in specific geographic areas, such as south central California, south Arizona. Nevada, and New Mexico. Approximately 60 percent of infected people is asymptomatic and the remainders mostly exhibit respiratory complaints, from flu-like coughing to overt pneumonia. Usually the infection due to Coccidioides immitis is self-limited. Symptoms resolve within several weeks but radiographic abnormalities could be resolved more slowly. If the radiographic abnormalities persist more than 8 weeks, the term' chronic pulmonary coccidioidomycosis' is designated. They take forms of nodules, cavities or progressive pneumonia. When manifested as nodule(s), lung malignancy is suspected as a possible diagnosis and histologic confirmation is needed. Here, we report a case of chronic pulmonary coccidioidomycosis manifested as solitary pulmonary nodule in a Korean woman who has traveled in Arizona, which is diagnosed finally by lobectomy and histologic examination.

  • PDF

Observation of the Cosmic Near-Infrared Background with the CIBER rocket

  • Kim, Min-Gyu;Matsumoto, T.;Lee, Hyung-Mok;Arai, T.;Battle, J.;Bock, J.;Brown, S.;Cooray, A.;Hristov, V.;Keating, B.;Korngut, P.;Lee, Dae-Hee;Levenson, L.R.;Lykke, K.;Mason, P.;Matsuura, S.;Nam, U.W.;Renbarger, T.;Smith, A.;Sullivan, I.;Wada, T.;Zemcov, M.
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
    • /
    • v.37 no.1
    • /
    • pp.42-42
    • /
    • 2012
  • The First stars (Pop.III stars) in the universe are expected to be formed between the recombination era at z - 1100 and the most distant quasar (z - 8). They have never been directly detected due to its faintness so far, but can be observed as a background radiation at around 1${\mu}m$ which is called the Cosmic Near-Infrared Background (CNB). Main part of the CNB is thought to be redshifted Lyman-alpha from gas clouds surrounding the Pop.III stars. Until now, the COBE (COsmic Background Explorer) and the IRTS (Infrared Telescope in Space) observed excess emission over the background due to galaxies. To confirm the COBE and the IRTS results and pursue more observational evidences, we carried out the sounding rocket experiment named the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER). The CIBER is successfully launched on July 10, 2010 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, USA. It consists of three kinds of instruments. We report the results obtained by LRS (Low Resolution Spectrometer) which is developed to fill the uncovered spectrum around 1${\mu}m$. LRS is a refractive telescope of 5.5 cm aperture with spectral resolution of 20 - 30 and wavelength coverage of 0.7 to 2.0${\mu}m$. After subtracting foreground components (zodiacal light, integrated star light and diffuse galactic light) from the sky brightness of observed five fields, there remained significant residual emission (even for the lower limit case) consistent with the IRTS and the COBE results. In addition, there exists a clear gap at 0.7 - 0.8${\mu}m$ in the CNB spectrum over the background due to galaxies according to recent results (Matsuoka et al. 2011; Mattila et al. 2011). The origin of the excess emission could be ascribed to the Pop.III stars with its active era of z = 7 - 10.

  • PDF

The Effects of Tasks Setting for Mathematical Modelling in the Complex Real Situation (실세계 상황에서 수학적 모델링 과제설정 효과)

  • Shin, Hyun-Sung;Lee, Myeong-Hwa
    • Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
    • /
    • v.14 no.4
    • /
    • pp.423-442
    • /
    • 2011
  • The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of tasks setting for mathematical modelling in the complex real situations. The tasks setting(MMa, MeA) in mathematical modelling was so important that we can't ignore its effects to develop meaning and integrate mathematical ideas. The experimental setting were two groups ($N_1=103$, $N_2=103$) at public high school and non-experimental setting was one group($N_3=103$). In mathematical achievement, we found meaningful improvement for MeA group on modelling tasks, but no meaningful effect on information processing tasks. The statistical method used was ACONOVA analysis. Beside their achievement, we were much concerned about their modelling approach that TSG21 had suggested in Category "Educational & cognitive Midelling". Subjects who involved in experimental works showed very interesting approach as Exploration, analysis in some situation ${\Rightarrow}$ Math. questions ${\Rightarrow}$ Setting models ${\Rightarrow}$ Problem solution ${\Rightarrow}$ Extension, generalization, but MeA group spent a lot of time on step: Exploration, analysis and MMa group on step, Setting models. Both groups integrated actively many heuristics that schoenfeld defined. Specially, Drawing and Modified Simple Strategy were the most powerful on approach step 1,2,3. It was very encouraging that those experimental setting was improved positively more than the non-experimental setting on mathematical belief and interest. In our school system, teaching math. modelling could be a answer about what kind of educational action or environment we should provide for them. That is, mathematical learning.

  • PDF

Accuracy of Electronic Pedometers to Assess Body Fatness in Obese Children and Youth (비만 어린이와 청소년들의 체지방 평가를 위한 electronic pedometer 의 정확성 분석)

  • Kim, Do-Yeon
    • Journal of Life Science
    • /
    • v.19 no.10
    • /
    • pp.1368-1373
    • /
    • 2009
  • The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of waist size on the reliability and validity of pedometers to count steps in children and youth. The participants for this study were 20 children and youth, composed of 14 Hispanic and 6 Caucasian children. Ten children and youth had waist circumferences greater than the $85^{th}$ percentile (Body Mass Index (BMI)=$28.91\pm3.07$), and 10 children and youth had waist circumferences smaller than the $50^{th}$ percentile (BMI=$18.05\pm1.55$). To examine pedometer reliability, each child completed 3 ascent and descent trials up a set of 15 stairs while wearing a Yamax SW-701 pedometer. The main effect of trials was not statistically significant for the stair ascent trials F (2, 36)=2.575 or for the descent trials F (2, 36)=0.235. The trial by group interaction was also not statistically significant. To examine the influence of waist circumference on the validity of the pedometer in counting walking steps at a self-selected walking pace, the children and youth in the two groups completed a 400-m course. The main effect on the groups was statistically significant, F (1, 18)=7.489. The main effect of counting techniques was not statistically significant, F (1, 18)=2.983 (hand-counted vs. pedometer counted). Overall, the trial and trial by group interaction comparisons for the 400-m walk were not statistically significant, suggesting that the pedometer was equally valid as a tool for assessing walking steps in high waist circumference (HWC) and low waist circumference (LWC) in children and youth.

Legislative Approaches to Terminal Care Issue in the U.S.A. - Acts on Terminal Health-Care Decision (말기의료에 관한 미국 법제의 연구 - 말기의료결정 제도를 중심으로)

  • Suk, HeeTae
    • The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
    • /
    • v.14 no.1
    • /
    • pp.355-401
    • /
    • 2013
  • The first legislation for terminal health-care decision was California's Natural Death Act (NDA) of 1976 that permitted any adult person to execute a directive directing the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures. Advance directive legislation has subsequently progressed on a state-by-state basis. By 1992, all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, had passed legislation to legalize some form of advance directive. This state legislation, however, has resulted in an often fragmented, incomplete, and sometimes inconsistent set of rules. Statutes enacted within a state often conflict and conflicts between statutes of different states are common. In an increasingly mobile society where an advance health-care directive given in one state must frequently be implemented in another, there is a need for greater uniformity. In 1993, the Uniform Law Commissioners approved the Uniform Health-Care Decisions Act (UHCDA) in order to bring order to the existing chaos. Unfortunately, the Commissioners waited too long to act. By the time the UHCDA was approved, nearly all states had passed legislation governing advance directives. Consequently, the UHCDA has achieved only a limited success, picking up but one or two enactments a year. The UHCDA is currently in effect in around 10 states: Alabama, Alaska, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Wyoming. In these states the previous laws related to the subjects have been all repealed. The overall objective of the UHCDA is to encourage the making and enforcement of advance health care directives including living will or individual instruction, power of health-care attorney and to provide a means for making health care decisions for those who have failed to plan. The U. S. House of Representatives in 1991 enacted the Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA). The Act stipulates that all hospitals receiving Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement must ascertain whether patients have or wish to have advance directives. The Patient Self- Determination Act does not create or legalize advance directives; rather it validates their existence in each of the states. Now in America, terminal health-care decision or advance directive for health care is common and universal system. The problem, however, is how to let more people use these good tools to make their lives more beautiful and honorable.

  • PDF

Effect of stress during slaughter on carcass characteristics and meat quality in tropical beef cattle

  • Carrasco-Garcia, Apolo A.;Pardio-Sedas, Violeta T.;Leon-Banda, Gloria G.;Ahuja-Aguirre, Concepcion;Paredes-Ramos, Pedro;Hernandez-Cruz, Bertha C.;Murillo, Vicente Vega
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
    • /
    • v.33 no.10
    • /
    • pp.1656-1665
    • /
    • 2020
  • Objective: This study aimed to determine the effects of stress during slaughter of beef cattle on physiological parameters, carcass, and meat quality at a Federal Inspection Type slaughterhouse located in the southeast of Mexico. Methods: A total of 448 carcasses of male Zebu×European steers with an average age of 36 months were included. Carcass assessment of presence of bruises and bruise characteristics was carried out on each half-carcass. Blood variable indicators of stress (packed cell volume, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, glucose, cortisol concentration) and meat quality parameters (pH, color, shear force, drip loss) were evaluated. Results: Of the 448 carcasses evaluated, 81% of the carcasses showed at least one bruise; one bruise was detected in 36.6% and two bruises in 27.0% of animals. Of the 775 bruises found, 69.2% of the bruises were grade 1 in region 3. Of the 448 carcasses studied, 69.6% showed hyperglycemia (6.91 mmol/L); 44.3% and 22.7% showed high (74.7 ng/mL) and extremely high (108.8 ng/mL) cortisol levels, respectively, indicative of inadequate handling of animals during preslaughter and slaughter. Of the carcasses evaluated, 90.4% had a pH ≥5.8 with an average of pH 6.3. In both pH groups, meat samples showed L values >37.0 (81.6%) and a shear force >54.3 N; meat pH≥5.8 group showed a drip loss of 2.5%. These findings were indicative of dark, firm, and dry (DFD) meat. According to principal component analysis, grades 1 and 2 bruises in region 3 and grade 1 bruises in region 5 were highly associated with cortisol, drip loss, and color parameters b and h and were negatively associated with L, a, and C. Conclusion: The bruises probably caused by stress-inducing situations triggered DFD meat. Appropriate changes in handling routines in operating conditions should be made to minimize stress to animals during the slaughter process to improve animal welfare and meat quality.

Motives, Strategies and Patterns of Foreign Direct Investment : The Case of Japanese and Korean Firms

  • Park, Kang-H.;Lim, Yong-Taek
    • International Commerce and Information Review
    • /
    • v.7 no.4
    • /
    • pp.387-407
    • /
    • 2005
  • This paper is to study globalization motives and strategies of Japanese and Korean industries by analyzing the causes and patterns of foreign direct investment (FDI) of the firms of the two countries during the 1980s and 1990s. First we develop a FDI function from the profit maximizing model of firms. Then we use regression analysis to determine internally driving-out factors and externally-inducing factors. Japanese FDI strategy has gone through three different stages; from natural resource-seeking investment in the 1950s and 1960s to market-expansion investment in the 1970s and 1980s and to a combination of cost-reducing (low-cost labor-seeking) investment and market-penetrating investment in the 1990s. On the other hand, Korean FDI behavior has gone through four different stages; from the learning stage with small investments in the 1970s, to natural resource-seeking investment in the early and mid 1980s, to the growth stage in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, to the maturity stage of the mid and late 1990s. The last two stages were characterized by a combination of cost-reducing investment and market-seeking investment. As a late comer, Korea began its FDI two decades later than Japan, but caught up the patterns of Japanese FDI by the mid 1990s and is in a competing position with Japan. Our findings show that both Japanese FDI and Korean FDI in Asia and other developing countries tendto be in labor-intensive sectors where their firms are losing their comparative advantages at home. The main motive for FDI into these regions is low-cost resource seeking. On the other hand, both Japanese FDI and Korean FDI in the U.S. and Europe tend to be knowledge-intensive sectors where Japanese and Korean firms attempt to internalize transaction and information costs by globalizing its production. The main motive for FDI into these regions is market-seeking. Firms in both countries have increased their investments in Mexico and Western and Eastern Europe in order to penetrate large economic blocs such as the EU and NAFTA area. Korean firms are more aggressive in expanding into new and untested markets than are their counterpart in Japan. Evidence of this can be seen in the scarcity of Japanese FDI and abundance of Korean FDI in Eastern Europe and China.

  • PDF

Characterization of lead isotope emission profiles in non-ferrous smelters in South Korea (국내 비철금속 제련시설에서의 납 동위원소 배출특성 연구)

  • Park, Jin-Ju;Kim, Ki-Jun;Park, Jin-Soo;Yoo, Suk-Min;Park, Kwang-Soo;Seok, Kwang-Seol;Shin, Hyung-Sun;Song, Guem-Joo;Kim, Young-Hee
    • Analytical Science and Technology
    • /
    • v.26 no.5
    • /
    • pp.333-339
    • /
    • 2013
  • This study was conducted to build up the inventories of Pb isotopic compositions of major Pb pollution sources in South Korea. Since non-ferrous metal smelters are one of major anthropogenic sources, two smelters for zinc, each one of smelter for lead and copper were selected for the study. The Pb concentrations and isotopic compositions of metal ores, wastewater, sludge, metal rod and produced sulfuric acid were analysed to understand the Pb isotopic patterns in environment. The isotopic ratio, $^{206}Pb/^{207}Pb$, of zinc ores from zinc smelter were in the range of 1.179~1.198 and the ratio of waste, flue gas and products samples were 1.105~1.147. This results implied that the isotopic patterns of output samples showed mixing patterns between two distinct metal ore soerces. In 2011, major importing countries of zinc ore were Australia, Peru and Mexico. Thus Pb isotopic patterns from zinc smelter is originated from the mixing patterns between less radiogenic Australian ores and more radiogenic South America's ores. Lead smelters also showed the same mixing patterns with those of zinc smelters. However copper smelter showed same Pb isotopic patterns with more radiogenic South America's ores.

Effects of 12-Week Walking Exercise on Health-related Factors, Growth Hormone, IGF-1 and Leptin in the Obese and the Normal Middle School Girls (12주 걷기운동이 비만과 일반 여중생의 건강관련요소, GH, IGF-1 및 leptin에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Jong-Won;Kwak, Yi-Sub;Yoon, Byung-Kon;Kim, Do-Yeon
    • Journal of Life Science
    • /
    • v.19 no.11
    • /
    • pp.1644-1650
    • /
    • 2009
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 12-week walking exercise on body composition, physical fitness, cardiovascular function, blood lipids, GH, IGF-1and leptin in obese and normal middle school girls. Participants included 12 pairs of middle school girls who were matched for sex, age and stratified by BMI (Obese Group: BMI$\geq$25.0; Normal Group: BMI<23.0). The variables of all factors were measured in all the subjects before and after the 12-week walking exercise program. The test data were analyzed by paired t-test, and t-test using the SPSS 14.0 statistics package and the alpha level of p<0.05 was set for all tests of significance. Body composition showed a significant difference in both groups, but the variables of physical fitness, cardiovascular function, blood lipids, growth hormone, and leptin did not show a significant difference in the two groups. We conclude that regular and continuous walking exercise improved body composition, physical fitness, cardiovascular function, blood lipids, and insulin factors in both groups. Consequently, these findings suggest that walking exercise will be effective for preventing obesity and improving health-related factors in the middle school girls.