• Title/Summary/Keyword: Quality Performance Rate

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An Analysis of the Imported Consumer Goods Distribution Sector of Korea: From a Vertical Structure Viewpoint (수입소비재(輸入消費財) 유통구조(流通構造)의 효율화(效率化) 방안(方案))

  • Nam, Il-chong
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.3-33
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    • 1991
  • Since the early 1980's, the Korean government has gradually been widening the Korean market to foreign consumer goods. This, combined with the increased purchasing power of the Korean consumers resulting from the continued economic growth of the country, has sparked a spectacular influx of foreign consumer goods into Korea, ranging from BMW's to chopsticks. Import of foreign consumer goods amounted to more than 6 billion dollars in 1989 and is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. The increased import of foreign consumer goods doubtlessly improved the overall welfare of the Korean consumers by providing them with a wider range of options to choose from, by lowering the prices of some of the consumer goods domestically produced, and also by forcing the producers of some Korean goods to face competition with better foreign goods, thus giving them an incentive to raise the quality of their products. However, it is agreed by most economists that this increase in general welfare has been much smaller than what they had expected at the outset. Consumer prices of most imported consumer goods are easily double the import price, and in some cases, more than treble the import prices. Further, there has not been a noticeable drop in the prices of domestically produced consumer goods. Much of the blame has been attributed to the distribution sector of Korea. The objective of this paper is to analyze the imported consumer goods distribution sector of Korea, focusing on the possible sources of the poor performance of that sector, and to make policy suggestions that could potentially increase the welfare. This paper differs from all the previous research by others on this subject in that it analyzes the imported consumer goods distribution sector of Korea as a vertical structure. The distribution sector of an imported consumer good is a vertical structure since it consists of an international market, an import stage, and domestic wholesale and retail markets, in that order vertically. Our study naturally includes the analysis of the vertical restraints as well as the analysis of the industrial organization of each horizontal stage in the vertical structure. Each horizontal component of the imported consumer goods distribution sector is basically a monopolistically competitive market differentiated by characteristics of goods and by the locations and the services of firms. Further, restrictive dealership and resale price maintenance are found to be widely in use. Our main findings are the follwing; First, most consumer goods are imported monopolistically or oligopolistically through restrictive dealership contracts between foreign producers and domestic importers. Such restrictive dealership gives importers market power in the domestic market and explains many of the large discrepancies betwen the consumer prices and the import prices of many goods. Korean anti - trust law does not cover the issues arising from the market power of an importer resulting from a restrictive dealership contract. Second, some major producers of Korean goods are also importers of foreign goods that are substitutes of their products. The import of substitutes by major domestic producers is anti - competitive because it tends to raise the prices of both domestic goods and foreign goods, and also because it reduces the incentive of the domestic producers to raise the quality of their products. Third, wholesalers and retailers widely use resale price maintenance as a price fixing mechanism, and while this is against the anti- trust law, it seldom gets noticed. Fourth, the high level of rents of real estate for commercial use works as an entry barrier to the distribution sector and results in reduced competition by the firms in that sector. Finally, there are information problems. Consumers have inferior information to firms about the quality of a foreign consumer good that they have not tried before. Such information asymmetry often enables firms to raise prices. In addition, information asymmetry between importers frequently delays the import of cheaper substitutes. In order to alleviate the problems indentified above, we suggest the following policy changes. The government should strengthen the anti - trust law and its enforcement to regulate restrictive import contracts, import of competing goods by major domestic producers, and RPM by wholesalers and retailers that is aimed at price fixing. In addition, the government should loosen its tight real estate policy to encourage investment in the distribution sector. Finally, we suggest that the import price revelation policy that has been in use for some items since 1990 be expanded to most imported consumer goods that are introduced for the first time to give consumer better information and be used only for the period of time needed to inform sufficient number of consumers.

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Performance Evaluation of Radiochromic Films and Dosimetry CheckTM for Patient-specific QA in Helical Tomotherapy (나선형 토모테라피 방사선치료의 환자별 품질관리를 위한 라디오크로믹 필름 및 Dosimetry CheckTM의 성능평가)

  • Park, Su Yeon;Chae, Moon Ki;Lim, Jun Teak;Kwon, Dong Yeol;Kim, Hak Joon;Chung, Eun Ah;Kim, Jong Sik
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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    • v.32
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    • pp.93-109
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    • 2020
  • Purpose: The radiochromic film (Gafchromic EBT3, Ashland Advanced Materials, USA) and 3-dimensional analysis system dosimetry checkTM (DC, MathResolutions, USA) were evaluated for patient-specific quality assurance (QA) of helical tomotherapy. Materials and Methods: Depending on the tumors' positions, three types of targets, which are the abdominal tumor (130.6㎤), retroperitoneal tumor (849.0㎤), and the whole abdominal metastasis tumor (3131.0㎤) applied to the humanoid phantom (Anderson Rando Phantom, USA). We established a total of 12 comparative treatment plans by the four geometric conditions of the beam irradiation, which are the different field widths (FW) of 2.5-cm, 5.0-cm, and pitches of 0.287, 0.43. Ionization measurements (1D) with EBT3 by inserting the cheese phantom (2D) were compared to DC measurements of the 3D dose reconstruction on CT images from beam fluence log information. For the clinical feasibility evaluation of the DC, dose reconstruction has been performed using the same cheese phantom with the EBT3 method. Recalculated dose distributions revealed the dose error information during the actual irradiation on the same CT images quantitatively compared to the treatment plan. The Thread effect, which might appear in the Helical Tomotherapy, was analyzed by ripple amplitude (%). We also performed gamma index analysis (DD: 3mm/ DTA: 3%, pass threshold limit: 95%) for pattern check of the dose distribution. Results: Ripple amplitude measurement resulted in the highest average of 23.1% in the peritoneum tumor. In the radiochromic film analysis, the absolute dose was on average 0.9±0.4%, and gamma index analysis was on average 96.4±2.2% (Passing rate: >95%), which could be limited to the large target sizes such as the whole abdominal metastasis tumor. In the DC analysis with the humanoid phantom for FW of 5.0-cm, the three regions' average was 91.8±6.4% in the 2D and 3D plan. The three planes (axial, coronal, and sagittal) and dose profile could be analyzed with the entire peritoneum tumor and the whole abdominal metastasis target, with planned dose distributions. The dose errors based on the dose-volume histogram in the DC evaluations increased depending on FW and pitch. Conclusion: The DC method could implement a dose error analysis on the 3D patient image data by the measured beam fluence log information only without any dosimetry tools for patient-specific quality assurance. Also, there may be no limit to apply for the tumor location and size; therefore, the DC could be useful in patient-specific QAl during the treatment of Helical Tomotherapy of large and irregular tumors.

Comparison of Egg Production among Crossbreds with Resistance to Fowl Typhoid in Egg Type Chickens (산란계에 있어서 가금티푸스 저항성 계통의 산란성 비교 연구)

  • 오봉국;한성욱;김기석;한경택
    • Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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    • v.30 no.1
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    • pp.1-10
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    • 2003
  • The objects of this study were to develop a new strain which has resistance to fowl typhoid, high performance in laying, and producing brown shell eggs favored by domestic consumers. Several White Leghorn (WL) breeds known as possessing genetic resistance to fowl typhoid and several brown shell egg breeds such as susceptible to the disease were used to produce the controlled strains with cross mating between the strains within the breeds and the experimental strains with crossbreeding between the breeds. The crossbred strains were Chungnong(CN) 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26. The controlled strains were ISA brown CC, Hyline brown CC and Lohman brown CC. The survival rates were 99.95% for chicks of age 0∼l7 weeks and 91% for adult chickens of age 18∼72 weeks. There was no difference in survival rate between the crossbred and the controlled strains. The means of age of lst egg laying were 147 to 148 days and no difference was observed between the crossbred and the controlled. The egg Production rates of a9e 18∼72 weeks were 83.76% far the crossbred strains and 77.82% for the controlled strains, which is significantly higher in the crossbred than controlled strains by 6%. The numbers of the hen housed egg Production of age 18∼72 weeks were 292.33 eggs for the crossbred strains and 271.31 eggs fur the controlled strains. The difference of 21 eggs more produced by the crossbred than by the controlled was statistically significant. The mean egg weights of age 18∼72 weeks were 64.32g for the crossbred strains and 60.73g for the controlled strains, and the difference of 3.59g was statistically significant. The feed conversion rates during the age of 18 to 72 weeks were 2.297 for the crossbred strains and 2.454 for the controlled strains. The crossbreds were reduced feed consumption by 157g for 1kg of egg Production which was statistically significant. Haugh unit(H$.$u) at the age of 72 weeks were 82.20 for the crossbred strains and 77.82 for the controlled strains. The crossbred strains were superior quality by 4.38 H$.$u. There were no significant differences in the yolk color and the eggshell thickness between the crossbred strains and the controlled strains. The eggshell color of the crossbred strains was light brown which is the medium color of the white eggshell strains and the brown eggshell strains. The body weights at the ages of 8, 12, 18, 42 and 71 weeks were not different between the crossbred strains and the controlled strains.

A digital Audio Watermarking Algorithm using 2D Barcode (2차원 바코드를 이용한 오디오 워터마킹 알고리즘)

  • Bae, Kyoung-Yul
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.97-107
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    • 2011
  • Nowadays there are a lot of issues about copyright infringement in the Internet world because the digital content on the network can be copied and delivered easily. Indeed the copied version has same quality with the original one. So, copyright owners and content provider want a powerful solution to protect their content. The popular one of the solutions was DRM (digital rights management) that is based on encryption technology and rights control. However, DRM-free service was launched after Steve Jobs who is CEO of Apple proposed a new music service paradigm without DRM, and the DRM is disappeared at the online music market. Even though the online music service decided to not equip the DRM solution, copyright owners and content providers are still searching a solution to protect their content. A solution to replace the DRM technology is digital audio watermarking technology which can embed copyright information into the music. In this paper, the author proposed a new audio watermarking algorithm with two approaches. First, the watermark information is generated by two dimensional barcode which has error correction code. So, the information can be recovered by itself if the errors fall into the range of the error tolerance. The other one is to use chirp sequence of CDMA (code division multiple access). These make the algorithm robust to the several malicious attacks. There are many 2D barcodes. Especially, QR code which is one of the matrix barcodes can express the information and the expression is freer than that of the other matrix barcodes. QR code has the square patterns with double at the three corners and these indicate the boundary of the symbol. This feature of the QR code is proper to express the watermark information. That is, because the QR code is 2D barcodes, nonlinear code and matrix code, it can be modulated to the spread spectrum and can be used for the watermarking algorithm. The proposed algorithm assigns the different spread spectrum sequences to the individual users respectively. In the case that the assigned code sequences are orthogonal, we can identify the watermark information of the individual user from an audio content. The algorithm used the Walsh code as an orthogonal code. The watermark information is rearranged to the 1D sequence from 2D barcode and modulated by the Walsh code. The modulated watermark information is embedded into the DCT (discrete cosine transform) domain of the original audio content. For the performance evaluation, I used 3 audio samples, "Amazing Grace", "Oh! Carol" and "Take me home country roads", The attacks for the robustness test were MP3 compression, echo attack, and sub woofer boost. The MP3 compression was performed by a tool of Cool Edit Pro 2.0. The specification of MP3 was CBR(Constant Bit Rate) 128kbps, 44,100Hz, and stereo. The echo attack had the echo with initial volume 70%, decay 75%, and delay 100msec. The sub woofer boost attack was a modification attack of low frequency part in the Fourier coefficients. The test results showed the proposed algorithm is robust to the attacks. In the MP3 attack, the strength of the watermark information is not affected, and then the watermark can be detected from all of the sample audios. In the sub woofer boost attack, the watermark was detected when the strength is 0.3. Also, in the case of echo attack, the watermark can be identified if the strength is greater and equal than 0.5.

Quality Changes in Red Ginseng Extract during High Temperature Storage (열처리(熱處理)에 의한 홍삼(紅蔘)엑기스의 성분변화(成分變化))

  • Choi, Jin-Ho;Kim, Woo-Jung;Yang, Jae-Won;Sung, Hyun-Soon;Hong, Soon-Keun
    • Applied Biological Chemistry
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.50-58
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    • 1981
  • The influence of high temperature storage on the chemical composition and color intensity of the concentrated red ginseng extract(RGE) was investigated. The concentrated RGE was prepared by extraction of red ginseng tails with water and concentrated under reduced pressure. Changes in free sugars, saponin patterns and brown color intensity were measured during 96 hours of heat treatment at various temperature. A decrease in the contents of glucose, fructose and sucrose was resulted as the brown color intensity increased during the storage. The sugar contents and color intensity showed rapid initial change followed by slowing down at higher temperature. A significant relationship was found between sugar content and browning rate. The saponin pattern measured by high performance liquid chromatography, particularly in the region of protopanaxtriol, was also affected significantly. The peak heights of ginsenoside -Re and $-Rg_1$ were decreased while those of ginsenoside $-Rg_2$ and -Rh group were increased.

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Value of Health, Multidimensonal Health Locus of Control and Level of Self-esteem in Low Income Mothers (도시빈곤여성의 건강가치, 건강통제위성격 및 자아존중감과의 관계)

  • Lee, Kwang-Ok;Yang, Soon-Ok
    • Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.52-68
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    • 1996
  • As a product of poverty, health means the physical, mental and social instability caused by poverty. High mortality, high morbidity, and unsatisfied needs for medical care indicate the health condition of poor people. These indicators are related to the social and psychological property. This study is to develop an effective method of nursing in the poor family which is an essential unit in the nursing field of the community and to which a fundamental approach is need as a top priority. We can make such a study, though partially, by revealing the relationship among the Health-value, Health Locus of Contol, and the Level of Self esteem. We randomly sampled 243 women who are participating in the nursing department of the comnnity nursing centers in Seoul. We investigated by using questionaries and made an analysis on the result by SAS program. The result of this investigation can summarized as follows : 1. The average age of the subjects investigated is 43.4 and the participation rate in the economic activity is as high as 49.4%. Most of them are paid daily. The average members of the family are 4.28 persons, and 80.2% of which are nuclear families. The type of housing is as follows:51.4% are monthly-rent houses. Rent houses represent 23.5%. And 43.6% of the subjects graduate the high schools 2. The level of self-esteem possessed by the subjects is 37.17. The quality of task performance(3.46) and the morality(3.53) are low as compared with the other qualities. 3. In relation to the locus of control, internality is 22.39, the influence of powerrful others represents 20.24, and the effect of chance occurance is 16.41. 4. The orderings of value scale are the physical and mental health, comfortable life, happiness, mental peace, and pleasure. The lowest order is social recognition. 5. Considering in relation to the self-esteem and the locus of control, we found out that there is a negative relationship among the self-esteem, the influence of powerful others. The lower the level of self-esteem is, the higher the influence of powerful others is. There is also a negative relationship among the detailed items such as the qualities, and the positive attitude. 6. In a significant test in the general characters of the subjects and in the level of self-esteem, we can obtain the follwing results. The higher the economic level is, the higher the level of self-esteem is. And the higher the level of satisfaction with life is, the higher the level of self-esteem is. 7. In the locus of control, the higher the economic level is, the higher the internality is. 8. In the health-level, 75.72% represent the high health -level. And the group which has the low satisfaction with life represents the high level of health-value(81.6%). With these results, we can conclude that the level of self-esteem possessed by the poor women living in the city is high and that they have the multi-dimemsional health-value even though they are living in the poor condtions. Traditionally, the poverty has been recognized as an unfavorale factor in the health care. But this study shows that the poverty is no longer an unfavorale factor and, on the contrary, it has a potential power with which people can improve their health by possessing the high self-esteem and the high health value. The ultimate purpose which the nursing task of the community has is to make the patients keep and improve their own health. So, when the nurses approach the poor patients, the nurses should put an emphasis on the individual responsibilities of the patients, and respect their own health value.

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Development of a Business Model for Korean Insurance Companies with the Analysis of Fiduciary Relationship Persistency Rate (신뢰관계 유지율 분석을 통한 보험회사의 비즈니스 모델 개발)

  • 최인수;홍복안
    • Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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    • v.6 no.4
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    • pp.188-205
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    • 2001
  • Insurer's duty of declaration is based on reciprocity of principle of the highest good, and recently it is widely recognized in the British and American insurance circles. The conception of fiduciary relationship is no longer equity or the legal theory which is only confined to the nations with Anglo-American laws. Therefore, recognizing the fiduciary relationship as the essence of insurance contract, which is more closely related to public interest than any other fields. will serve an efficient measure to seek fair and reasonable relationship with contractor, and provide legal foundation which permits contractor to bring an action for damage against violation of insurer's duty of declaration. In the future, only when the fiduciary relationship is approved as the essence of insurance contract, the business performance and quality of insurance industry is expected to increase. Therefore, to keep well this fiduciary relationship, or increase the fiduciary relationship persistency rates seems to be the bottom line in the insurance industry. In this paper, we developed a fiduciary relationship maintenance ratio based on comparison by case, which is represented with usually maintained contract months to paid months, based on each contract of the basis point. In this paper we have developed a new business model seeking the maximum profit with low cost and high efficiency, management policy of putting its priority on its substantiality, as an improvement measure to break away from the vicious circle of high cost and low efficiency, and management policy of putting its priority on its external growth(expansion of market share).

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Validation of an Analytical Method for Deacetylasperulosidic acid, Total Sugar and Monosaccharide Analysis in Fermented Morinda citrifolia Polysaccharide Powder (발효노니 다당체 분말의 deacetylasperulosidic acid, 총당 및 단당류 분석법 검증)

  • Kwon, Heeyeon;Choi, Jisoo;Kim, Soojin;Kim, Eunmin;Uhm, Jihyun;Kim, Bokyung;Lee, Jaeyeon;Kim, Yongdeok
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.37 no.4
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    • pp.216-224
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    • 2022
  • This study was aimed at validating the analysis methods for deacetylasperulosidic acid (DAA), total sugar, galacturonic acid, glucose, and galactose, which are the indicator components of fermented Morinda citrifolia polysaccharide extract (Vitalbos). We modified the previously reported methods for validating the analytical methods. The specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection (LOD), and limit of quantification (LOQ) were measured using phenol-sulfuric acid method and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The retention time and spectrum of the standard solution of Vitalbos coincided, confirming the specificity. The calibration curve correlation coefficient (R2), of five indicator components, ranged from 0.9995-0.9998, indicating excellent linearity of 0.99 or more. The intra-day and inter-day precision range of the assay was 0.14-3.01%, indicating a precision of less than 5%. The recovery rate was in the range of 95.13-105.59%, presenting excellent accuracy. The LOD ranged from 0.39 to 0.84 ㎍/mL and the LOQ ranged from 1.18 to 2.55 ㎍/mL. Therefore, the analytical method was validated for DAA, total sugar, galacturonic acid, glucose, and galactose, in Vitalbos. The indicator component content in Vitalbos was determined using a validated method. The contents of DAA, total sugar, galacturonic acid, glucose, and galactose were 2.31±0.06, 475.92±5.95, 72.83±1.05, 71.63±2.44, and 67.30±2.31 mg/g of dry weight, respectively. These results suggest that the developed analytical method is efficient and could contribute to the quality control of Vitalbos, as a healthy functional food material.

Intestinal segment and vitamin D3 concentration affect gene expression levels of calcium and phosphorus transporters in broiler chickens

  • Jincheng Han;Lihua Wu;Xianliang Lv;Mengyuan Liu;Yan Zhang;Lei He;Junfang Hao;Li Xi;Hongxia Qu;Chuanxin Shi;Zhiqiang Li;Zhixiang Wang;Fei Tang;Yingying Qiao
    • Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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    • v.65 no.2
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    • pp.336-350
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    • 2023
  • Two experiments were conducted in this research. Experiment 1 investigated the spatial expression characteristics of calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) transporters in the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum of 21-day-old broilers provided with adequate nutrient feed. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of dietary vitamin D3 (VD3) concentration (0, 125, 250, 500, 1,000, and 2,000 IU/kg) on growth performance, bone development, and gene expression levels of intestinal Ca and P transporters in 1-21-day-old broilers provided with the negative control diet without supplemental VD3. Results in experiment 1 showed that the mRNA levels of calcium-binding protein 28-kDa (CaBP-D28k), sodium-calcium exchanger 1 (NCX1), plasma membrane calcium ATPase 1b (PMCA1b), and IIb sodium-phosphate cotransporter (NaPi-IIb) were the highest in the broiler duodenum. By contrast, the mRNA levels of inorganic phosphate transporter 1 (PiT-1) and 2 (PiT-2) were the highest in the ileum. Results in experiment 2 showed that adding 125 IU/kg VD3 increased body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), bone weight, and percentage and weight of Ca and P in the tibia and femur of 1-21-day-old broilers compared with the negative control diet (p < 0.05). The rise in dietary VD3 levels from 125 to 1,000 IU/kg further increased the BWG, FI, and weights of the bone, ash, Ca, and P (p < 0.05). No difference in growth rate and leg bone quality was noted in the broilers provided with 1,000 and 2,000 IU/kg VD3 (p > 0.05). Supplementation with 125-2,000 IU/kg VD3 increased the mRNA abundances of intestinal Ca and P transporters to varying degrees. The mRNA level of CaBP-D28k increased by 536, 1,161, and 28 folds in the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum, respectively, after adding 1,000 IU/kg VD3. The mRNA levels of other Ca and P transporters (PMCA1b, NCX1, NaPi-IIb, PiT-1, and PiT-2) increased by 0.57-1.74 folds by adding 1,000-2,000 IU/kg VD3. These data suggest that intestinal Ca and P transporters are mainly expressed in the duodenum of broilers. Moreover, the addition of VD3 stimulates the two mineral transporter transcription in broiler intestines.

Studies on Xylooligosaccharide Analysis Method Standardization using HPLC-UVD in Health Functional Food (건강기능식품에서 HPLC-UVD를 이용한 자일로올리고당 시험법의 표준화 연구)

  • Se-Yun Lee;Hee-Sun Jeong;Kyu-Heon Kim;Mi-Young Lee;Jung-Ho Choi;Jeong-Sun Ahn;Kwang-Il Kwon;Hye-Young Lee
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.39 no.2
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    • pp.72-82
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    • 2024
  • This study aimed to develop a scientifically and systematically standardized xylooligosaccharide analytical method that can be applied to products with various formulations. The analysis method was conducted using HPLC with Cadenza C18 column, involving pre-column derivatization with 1-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazoline (PMP) and UV detection at 254 nm. The xylooligosaccharide content was analyzed by converting xylooligosaccharide into xylose through acid hydrolysis. The pre-treated methods were compared and evaluated by varying sonication time, acid hydrolysis time, and concentration. Optimal equipment conditions were achieved with a mobile phase consisting of 20 mM potassium phosphate buffer (pH 6)-acetonitrile (78:22, v/v) through isocratic elution at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min (254 nm). Furthermore, we validated the advanced standardized analysis method to support the suitability of the proposed analytical procedure such as specificity, linearity, detection limits (LOD), quantitative limits (LOQ), accuracy, and precision. The standardized analysis method is now in use for monitoring relevant health-functional food products available in the market. Our results have demonstrated that the standardized analysis method is expected to enhance the reliability of quality control for healthy functional foods containing xylooligosaccharide.