• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.43.1-43.10
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• 2021

Background: The H5 avian influenza viruses (AIVs) of clade 2.3.4.4 circulate in wild and domestic birds worldwide. In 2017, nine strains of H5N6 AIVs were isolated from aquatic poultry in Xinjiang, Northwest China. Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the origin, reassortment, and mutations of the AIV isolates. Methods: AIVs were isolated from oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs of poultry. Identification was accomplished by inoculating isolates into embryonated chicken eggs and performing hemagglutination tests and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The viral genomes were amplified with RT-PCR and then sequenced. The sequence alignment, phylogenetic, and molecular characteristic analyses were performed by using bioinformatic software. Results: Nine isolates originated from the same ancestor. The viral HA gene belonged to clade 2.3.4.4B, while the NA gene had a close phylogenetic relationship with the 2.3.4.4C H5N6 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) isolated from shoveler ducks in Ningxia in 2015. The NP gene was grouped into an independent subcluster within the 2.3.4.4B H5N8 AIVs, and the remaining six genes all had close phylogenetic relationships with the 2.3.4.4B H5N8 HPAIVs isolated from the wild birds in China, Egypt, Uganda, Cameroon, and India in 2016-2017, Multiple basic amino acid residues associated with HPAIVs were located adjacent to the cleavage site of the HA protein. The nine isolates comprised reassortant 2.3.4.4B HPAIVs originating from 2.3.4.4B H5N8 and 2.3.4.4C H5N6 viruses in wild birds. Conclusions: These results suggest that the Northern Tianshan Mountain wetlands in Xinjiang may have a key role in AIVs disseminating from Central China to the Eurasian continent and East African.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• 제32권3호
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• pp.1-11
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• 2022

Objectives This study was designed to evaluate the healing effect of Cordyceps Militaris (CM) on collagen II-induced arthritis rats. Methods Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 6 groups (normal, control, positive control, CM with low/medium/high dosage each). Type II collagen mixed with complete Freund's adjuvant (with 1:1 v/v) was injected subcutaneously, and the mixture was injected in a same manner one week after the first injection to boost arthritis. Arthritis index, paw thickness and von Frey test were conducted to observe physical changes. hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was performed to observe knee cartilage. The levels of messenger RNA (mRNA) expressions of interleukin (IL)-1𝛽, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-𝛼) in spleen were assessed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that occurs on multiple joints and can lead to temporary shape change of bones or organ failure in severe cases. Here, we aimed to determine the effect of CM extract on rheumatoid arthritis by measuring paw thickness, arthritis index, conducting von Frey test and H&E staining, and evaluating the level of IL-1𝛽, IL-6, TNF-𝛼. As a result, paw thickness, arthritis index significantly decreased in low concentration group, hind leg became less sensitive in all expermental groups. Also, histological analysis showed that the damage of knee cartilage was prevented in all experimental groups. The level of mRNA of IL-1𝛽, IL-6, and TNF-𝛼 in spleen was analyzed to decide the effectiveness of CM extract. IL-1𝛽 did not show significant change, but IL-6 and TNF-𝛼 showed significant decrease in at least one of the experimental groups. Conclusions CM showed protective effect on knee tissue destruction and improved the physical conditions of the leg involving arthritis. Also, it showed that CM has anti-inflammatory effect on specific cytokines inducing rheumatoid arthritis. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the therapeutic potential of CM for the treatment rheumatoid arthritis, and set the foundation for the further studies.

• Animal Bioscience
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• 제36권7호
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• pp.1022-1033
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• 2023

Objective: p66Shc, a 66 kDa protein isoform encoded by the proto-oncogene SHC, is an essential intracellular redox homeostasis regulatory enzyme that is involved in the regulation of cellular oxidative stress, apoptosis induction and the occurrence of multiple age-related diseases. This study investigated the expression profile and functional characteristics of p66Shc during preimplantation embryo development in sheep. Methods: The expression pattern of p66Shc during preimplantation embryo development in sheep at the mRNA and protein levels were studied by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and immunofluorescence staining. The effect of p66Shc knockdown on the developmental potential were evaluated by cleavage rate, morula rate and blastocyst rate. The effect of p66Shc deficiency on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, DNA oxidative damage and the expression of antioxidant enzymes (e.g., catalase and manganese superoxide dismutase [MnSOD]) were also investigated by immunofluorescence staining. Results: Our results showed that p66Shc mRNA and protein were expressed in all stages of sheep early embryos and that p66Shc mRNA was significantly downregulated in the 4-to 8-cell stage (p<0.05) and significantly upregulated in the morula and blastocyst stages after embryonic genome activation (EGA) (p<0.05). Immunofluorescence staining showed that the p66Shc protein was mainly located in the peripheral region of the blastomere cytoplasm at different stages of preimplantation embryonic development. Notably, serine (Ser36)-phosphorylated p66Shc localized only in the cytoplasm during the 2- to 8-cell stage prior to EGA, while phosphorylated (Ser36) p66Shc localized not only in the cytoplasm but also predominantly in the nucleus after EGA. RNAi-mediated silencing of p66Shc via microinjection of p66Shc siRNA into sheep zygotes resulted in significant decreases in p66Shc mRNA and protein levels (p<0.05). Knockdown of p66Shc resulted in significant declines in the levels of intracellular ROS (p<0.05) and the DNA damage marker 8-hydroxy2'-deoxyguanosine (p<0.05), markedly increased MnSOD levels (p<0.05) and resulted in a tendency to develop to the morula stage. Conclusion: These results indicate that p66Shc is involved in the metabolic regulation of ROS production and DNA oxidative damage during sheep early embryonic development.

• Animal Bioscience
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• 제36권10호
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• pp.1488-1498
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• 2023

Objective: α_S1-Casein is more closely associated with milk allergic reaction than other milk protein components. microRNA (miRNA) is a class of small non-coding RNAs that modulate multiple biological progresses by the target gene. However, the post-transcriptional regulation of α_S1-casein expression by miRNA in ruminants remains unclear. This study aims to explore the regulatory roles of miR-380-3p on α_S1-casein synthesis in goat mammary epithelial cells (GMEC). Methods: α_S1-Casein gene and miR-380-3p expression was measured in dairy goat mammary gland by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). miR-380-3p overexpression and knockdown were performed by miR-380-3p mimic or inhibitor in GMEC. The effect of miR-380-3p on α_S1-casein synthesis was detected by qRT-PCR, western blot, luciferase and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays in GMEC. Results: Compared with middle-lactation period, α_S1-casein gene expression is increased, while miR-380-3p expression is decreased during peak-lactation of dairy goats. miR-380-3p reduces α_S1-casein abundance by targeting the 3'-untranslated region (3'UTR) of α_S1-casein mRNA in GMEC. miR-380-3p enhances β-casein expression and signal transducer and activator of transcription 5a (STAT5a) activity. Moreover, miR-380-3p promotes β-casein abundance through target gene α_S1-casein, and activates β-casein transcription by enhancing the binding of STAT5 to β-casein gene promoter region. Conclusion: miR-380-3p decreases α_S1-casein expression and increases β-casein expression by targeting α_S1-casein in GMEC, which supplies a novel strategy for reducing milk allergic potential and building up milk quality in ruminants.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• 제29권5B호
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• pp.397-408
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• 2009

In this study, a stochastic precipitation generation framework for simultaneous simulation of daily precipitation at multiple sites is presented. The precipitation occurrence at individual sites is generated using hybrid-order Markov chain model which allows higher-order dependence for dry sequences. The precipitation amounts are reproduced using Anscombe residuals and gamma distributions. Multisite spatial correlations in the precipitation occurrence and amount series are represented with spatially correlated random numbers. The proposed model is applied for a network of 17 locations in the middle of Korean peninsular. Evaluation statistics are reported by generating 50 realizations of the precipitation of length equal to the observed record. The analysis of results show that the model reproduces wet day number, wet and dry day spell, and mean and standard deviation of wet day amount fairly well. However, mean values of 50 realizations of generated precipitation series yield around 23% Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) of the average value of observed maximum numbers of consecutive wet and dry days and 17% RMSE of the average value of observed annual maximum precipitations for return periods of 100 and 200 years. The provided model also reproduces spatial correlations in observed precipitation occurrence and amount series accurately.

• Journal of the Korean Society of International Agriculture
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• 제23권5호
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• pp.497-502
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• 2011

Broccoli is considered as one of the functional foods to offer a hearty supply of the nutrient-rich vegetable in the world. Broccoli contains high level of phytochemicals, and that is selected as one of the top 10 vegetables for human health promotion. Especially, glucosinolates and flavonoids are well known as anti free oxygen radicals in vegetables and fruits. In Korea, broccoli consumption has increased to well known on the health-beneficial vegetables since 2000. However, broccoli has many problems of postharvest management since the quality of harvested heads quickly declines. Major problems are the floret yellowing, wilting, off-odor, and decay. The multiple postharvest applications improve broccoli quality and cold treatment including pre-cooling extends on the shelf-life with circumstance of optimum storage which is 0℃ temperature and a range of 95-100% relative humidity. Controlled atmosphere or modified atmosphere packaging can be used as supplemental treatments to extend postharvest life. 1-2% O₂ + 5-10% CO₂ is currently recommended for broccoli. Postharvest management is important for broccoli because price fluctuations depend on harvest time and quality. In this study, we tried to review physiological change of broccoli after the harvest, storage method, and various techniques to optimize quality during distribution.

• Convergence Security Journal
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.51-57
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• 2024

Although industrial control systems (ICSs) recently keep evolving with the introduction of Industrial IoT converging information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), it also leads to a variety of threats and vulnerabilities, which was not experienced in the past ICS with no connection to the external network. Since various control command messages are sent to field devices of the ICS for the purpose of monitoring and controlling the operational processes, it is required to guarantee the message integrity as well as control center authentication. In case of the conventional message integrity codes and signature schemes based on symmetric keys and public keys, respectively, they are not suitable considering the asymmetry between the control center and field devices. Especially, compromised node attacks can be mounted against the symmetric-key-based schemes. In this paper, we propose message authentication scheme based on double hash chains constructed from cryptographic hash function without introducing other primitives, and then propose extension scheme using Merkle tree for multiple uses of the double hash chains. It is shown that the proposed scheme is much more efficient in computational complexity than other conventional schemes.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.1-17
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• 2017

The deep learning framework is software designed to help develop deep learning models. Some of its important functions include "automatic differentiation" and "utilization of GPU". The list of popular deep learning framework includes Caffe (BVLC) and Theano (University of Montreal). And recently, Microsoft's deep learning framework, Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit, was released as open-source license, following Google's Tensorflow a year earlier. The early deep learning frameworks have been developed mainly for research at universities. Beginning with the inception of Tensorflow, however, it seems that companies such as Microsoft and Facebook have started to join the competition of framework development. Given the trend, Google and other companies are expected to continue investing in the deep learning framework to bring forward the initiative in the artificial intelligence business. From this point of view, we think it is a good time to compare some of deep learning frameworks. So we compare three deep learning frameworks which can be used as a Python library. Those are Google's Tensorflow, Microsoft's CNTK, and Theano which is sort of a predecessor of the preceding two. The most common and important function of deep learning frameworks is the ability to perform automatic differentiation. Basically all the mathematical expressions of deep learning models can be represented as computational graphs, which consist of nodes and edges. Partial derivatives on each edge of a computational graph can then be obtained. With the partial derivatives, we can let software compute differentiation of any node with respect to any variable by utilizing chain rule of Calculus. First of all, the convenience of coding is in the order of CNTK, Tensorflow, and Theano. The criterion is simply based on the lengths of the codes and the learning curve and the ease of coding are not the main concern. According to the criteria, Theano was the most difficult to implement with, and CNTK and Tensorflow were somewhat easier. With Tensorflow, we need to define weight variables and biases explicitly. The reason that CNTK and Tensorflow are easier to implement with is that those frameworks provide us with more abstraction than Theano. We, however, need to mention that low-level coding is not always bad. It gives us flexibility of coding. With the low-level coding such as in Theano, we can implement and test any new deep learning models or any new search methods that we can think of. The assessment of the execution speed of each framework is that there is not meaningful difference. According to the experiment, execution speeds of Theano and Tensorflow are very similar, although the experiment was limited to a CNN model. In the case of CNTK, the experimental environment was not maintained as the same. The code written in CNTK has to be run in PC environment without GPU where codes execute as much as 50 times slower than with GPU. But we concluded that the difference of execution speed was within the range of variation caused by the different hardware setup. In this study, we compared three types of deep learning framework: Theano, Tensorflow, and CNTK. According to Wikipedia, there are 12 available deep learning frameworks. And 15 different attributes differentiate each framework. Some of the important attributes would include interface language (Python, C ++, Java, etc.) and the availability of libraries on various deep learning models such as CNN, RNN, DBN, and etc. And if a user implements a large scale deep learning model, it will also be important to support multiple GPU or multiple servers. Also, if you are learning the deep learning model, it would also be important if there are enough examples and references.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• 제37권5호
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• pp.1323-1329
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• 2020

To characterize the molecular structure of PhE-gal synthesized using Escherichia coli 𝛽-gal, NMR (¹H- and ¹³C-) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry of PhE-gal were conducted. ¹H NMR spectrum of PhE-gal showed multiple peaks corresponding to the galactosyl group, which is an evidence of galactosylation on 2-phenylethanol (PhE). Downfield proton peaks at 𝛿_H 7.30~7.21 ppm showed the presence of aromatic protons of PhE as well as benzyl CH₂ protons at 𝛿_H 2.88 ppm. Up field proton peaks at 𝛿_H 4.31 ppm, 4.07 ppm and multiple peaks from 𝛿_H 3.86~3.38 ppm are indicative of galactocylation on PhE. ¹³C NMR spectrum revealed the presence of 12 carbons suggestive of PhE-gal. Among 12 carbon peaks from PhE-gal, the four peaks at 138.7, 129.0, 128.6 and 126.5 were assigned aromatic carbons in the phenyl ring. Three peaks at 129.0, 128.6 and 126.5 showed high intensities, indicating CH aromatic carbons. ¹³C NMR data of PhE-gal showed 6 monosaccharide peaks from galactose and 2 peaks from aliphatic chain of PhE, indicating that PhE-gal was galactosyl PhE. The mass value (sodium adduct ion of PhE-gal, m/z = 307.1181) from mass spectrometry analysis of PhE-gal, and ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectral data were in good agreement with the expecting structure of PhE-gal. We are expecting that through future study it will eventually be able to develop a new additive with low cytotoxicity.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제29권7호
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• pp.925-937
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• 2016

In the last few decades, transgenic animal technology has witnessed an increasingly wide application in animal breeding. Reproductive traits are economically important to the pig industry. It has been shown that the bone morphogenetic protein receptor type IB (BMPR1B) A746G polymorphism is responsible for the fertility in sheep. However, this causal mutation exits exclusively in sheep and goat. In this study, we attempted to create transgenic pigs by introducing this mutation with the aim to improve reproductive traits in pigs. We successfully constructed a vector containing porcine BMPR1B coding sequence (CDS) with the mutant G allele of A746G mutation. In total, we obtained 24 cloned male piglets using handmade cloning (HMC) technique, and 12 individuals survived till maturation. A set of polymerase chain reactions indicated that 11 of 12 matured boars were transgene-positive individuals, and that the transgenic vector was most likely disrupted during cloning. Of 11 positive pigs, one (No. 11) lost a part of the terminator region but had the intact promoter and the CDS regions. cDNA sequencing showed that the introduced allele (746G) was expressed in multiple tissues of transgene-positive offspring of No.11. Western blot analysis revealed that BMPR1B protein expression in multiple tissues of transgene-positive $F_1$ piglets was 0.5 to 2-fold higher than that in the transgene-negative siblings. The No. 11 boar showed normal litter size performance as normal pigs from the same breed. Transgene-positive $F_1$ boars produced by No. 11 had higher semen volume, sperm concentration and total sperm per ejaculate than the negative siblings, although the differences did not reached statistical significance. Transgene-positive $F_1$ sows had similar litter size performance to the negative siblings, and more data are needed to adequately assess the litter size performance. In conclusion, we obtained 24 cloned transgenic pigs with the modified porcine BMPR1B CDS using HMC. cDNA sequencing and western blot indicated that the exogenous BMPR1B CDS was successfully expressed in host pigs. The transgenic pigs showed normal litter size performance. However, no significant differences in litter size were found between transgene-positive and negative sows. Our study provides new insight into producing cloned transgenic livestock related to reproductive traits.