• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.343-351
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• 2016

Although the chemical, physical, and nutritional properties of bovine milk have been extensively studied, only a few studies have attempted to characterize milk-synthesizing genes using RNA-seq data. RNA-seq data was collected from 21 Holstein samples, along with group information about milk production ability; milk yield; and protein, fat, and solid contents. Meta-analysis was employed in order to generally characterize genes related to milk production. In addition, we attempted to investigate the relationship between milk related traits, parity, and lactation period. We observed that milk fat is highly correlated with lactation period; this result indicates that this effect should be considered in the model in order to accurately detect milk production related genes. By employing our developed model, 271 genes were significantly (false discovery rate [FDR] adjusted p-value<0.1) detected as milk production related differentially expressed genes. Of these genes, five (albumin, nitric oxide synthase 3, RNA-binding region (RNP1, RRM) containing 3, secreted and transmembrane 1, and serine palmitoyltransferase, small subunit B) were technically validated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in order to check the accuracy of RNA-seq analysis. Finally, 83 gene ontology biological processes including several blood vessel and mammary gland development related terms, were significantly detected using DAVID gene-set enrichment analysis. From these results, we observed that detected milk production related genes are highly enriched in the circulation system process and mammary gland related biological functions. In addition, we observed that detected genes including caveolin 1, mammary serum amyloid A3.2, lingual antimicrobial peptide, cathelicidin 4 (CATHL4), cathelicidin 6 (CATHL6) have been reported in other species as milk production related gene. For this reason, we concluded that our detected 271 genes would be strong candidates for determining milk production.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.108-116
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• 2003

A series of new quinclorac family, herbicidal 3-phenyl-5-(3,7-dichloro-8-quinolinyl)-1,2,4-oxadiazole derivatives as substrate were synthesized and their growth inhibition activity $(pI_{50})$ against root and shoot of rice plant (Oryza sativa L.) and barnyard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli) were determined. And then comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and molecular holographic quantitative structure- activity relationship (HQSAR) were compared in terms of their potential for predictiability. The statistical results were suggested that HQSAR based model had better predictability than CoMFA model. The selective factors to remove barnyard grass take electron withdrawing groups which can be created positive charge and steric bulky on the phenyl ring. Results revealed that the unknown 2,6-dichloro-substituent, U5 and 2,4,6-trichloro-substituent, U6(${\Delta}pI_{50}$=CoMFA: 1.18 & HQSAR: 1.82) were predicted as compound with higher activity and selectivity.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.154-161
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• 2024

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal motor neuron disorder that causes progressive paralysis. L-Citrulline is a nonessential neutral amino acid produced by L-arginine via nitric oxide synthase (NOS). According to previous studies, the pathogenesis of ALS entails glutamate toxicity, oxidative stress, protein misfolding, and neurofilament disruption. In addition, L-citrulline prevents neuronal cell death in brain ischemia; therefore, we investigated the change in the transport of L-citrulline under various pathological conditions in a cell line model of ALS. We examined the uptake of [¹⁴C]L-citrulline in wild-type (hSOD1wt/WT) and mutant NSC-34/ SOD1^G93A (MT) cell lines. The cell viability was determined via MTT assay. A transport study was performed to determine the uptake of [¹⁴C]L-citrulline. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis was performed to determine the expression levels of rat large neutral amino acid transported 1 (rLAT1) in ALS cell lines. Nitric oxide (NO) assay was performed using Griess reagent. L-Citrulline had a restorative effect on glutamate induced cell death, and increased [¹⁴C]L-citrulline uptake and mRNA levels of the large neutral amino acid transporter (LAT1) in the glutamate-treated ALS disease model (MT). NO levels increased significantly when MT cells were pretreated with glutamate for 24 h and restored by co-treatment with L-citrulline. Co-treatment of MT cells with L-arginine, an NO donor, increased NO levels. NSC-34 cells exposed to high glucose conditions showed a significant increase in [¹⁴C]L-citrulline uptake and LAT1 mRNA expression levels, which were restored to normal levels upon co-treatment with unlabeled L-citrulline. In contrast, exposure of the MT cell line to tumor necrosis factor alpha, lipopolysaccharides, and hypertonic condition decreased the uptake significantly which was restored to the normal level by co-treating with unlabeled L-citrulline. L-Citrulline can restore NO levels and cellular uptake in ALS-affected cells with glutamate cytotoxicity, pro-inflammatory cytokines, or other pathological states, suggesting that L-citrulline supplementation in ALS may play a key role in providing neuroprotection.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.39-55
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• 2019

Recently banks and large financial institutions have introduced lots of Robo-Advisor products. Robo-Advisor is a Robot to produce the optimal asset allocation portfolio for investors by using the financial engineering algorithms without any human intervention. Since the first introduction in Wall Street in 2008, the market size has grown to 60 billion dollars and is expected to expand to 2,000 billion dollars by 2020. Since Robo-Advisor algorithms suggest asset allocation output to investors, mathematical or statistical asset allocation strategies are applied. Mean variance optimization model developed by Markowitz is the typical asset allocation model. The model is a simple but quite intuitive portfolio strategy. For example, assets are allocated in order to minimize the risk on the portfolio while maximizing the expected return on the portfolio using optimization techniques. Despite its theoretical background, both academics and practitioners find that the standard mean variance optimization portfolio is very sensitive to the expected returns calculated by past price data. Corner solutions are often found to be allocated only to a few assets. The Black-Litterman Optimization model overcomes these problems by choosing a neutral Capital Asset Pricing Model equilibrium point. Implied equilibrium returns of each asset are derived from equilibrium market portfolio through reverse optimization. The Black-Litterman model uses a Bayesian approach to combine the subjective views on the price forecast of one or more assets with implied equilibrium returns, resulting a new estimates of risk and expected returns. These new estimates can produce optimal portfolio by the well-known Markowitz mean-variance optimization algorithm. If the investor does not have any views on his asset classes, the Black-Litterman optimization model produce the same portfolio as the market portfolio. What if the subjective views are incorrect? A survey on reports of stocks performance recommended by securities analysts show very poor results. Therefore the incorrect views combined with implied equilibrium returns may produce very poor portfolio output to the Black-Litterman model users. This paper suggests an objective investor views model based on Support Vector Machines(SVM), which have showed good performance results in stock price forecasting. SVM is a discriminative classifier defined by a separating hyper plane. The linear, radial basis and polynomial kernel functions are used to learn the hyper planes. Input variables for the SVM are returns, standard deviations, Stochastics %K and price parity degree for each asset class. SVM output returns expected stock price movements and their probabilities, which are used as input variables in the intelligent views model. The stock price movements are categorized by three phases; down, neutral and up. The expected stock returns make P matrix and their probability results are used in Q matrix. Implied equilibrium returns vector is combined with the intelligent views matrix, resulting the Black-Litterman optimal portfolio. For comparisons, Markowitz mean-variance optimization model and risk parity model are used. The value weighted market portfolio and equal weighted market portfolio are used as benchmark indexes. We collect the 8 KOSPI 200 sector indexes from January 2008 to December 2018 including 132 monthly index values. Training period is from 2008 to 2015 and testing period is from 2016 to 2018. Our suggested intelligent view model combined with implied equilibrium returns produced the optimal Black-Litterman portfolio. The out of sample period portfolio showed better performance compared with the well-known Markowitz mean-variance optimization portfolio, risk parity portfolio and market portfolio. The total return from 3 year-period Black-Litterman portfolio records 6.4%, which is the highest value. The maximum draw down is -20.8%, which is also the lowest value. Sharpe Ratio shows the highest value, 0.17. It measures the return to risk ratio. Overall, our suggested view model shows the possibility of replacing subjective analysts's views with objective view model for practitioners to apply the Robo-Advisor asset allocation algorithms in the real trading fields.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.613-619
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• 2005

Indigenous Yakutian cattle' adaptation to the hardest subarctic conditions makes them a valuable genetic resource for cattle breeding in the Siberian area. Since early last century, crossbreeding between native Yakutian cattle and imported Simmental and Kholmogory breeds has been widely adopted. In this study, variations at 22 polymorphic microsatellite loci in 5 populations of Yakutian, Kholmogory, Simmental, Yakutian-Kholmogory and Yakutian-Simmental cattle were analysed to estimate the genetic contribution of Yakutian cattle to the two hybrid populations. Three statistical approaches were used: the weighted least-squares (WLS) method which considers all allele frequencies; a recently developed implementation of a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method called likelihood-based estimation of admixture (LEA); and a model-based Bayesian admixture analysis method (STRUCTURE). At population-level admixture analyses, the estimate based on the LEA was consistent with that obtained by the WLS method. Both methods showed that the genetic contribution of the indigenous Yakutian cattle in Yakutian-Kholmogory was small (9.6% by the LEA and 14.2% by the WLS method). In the Yakutian-Simmental population, the genetic contribution of the indigenous Yakutian cattle was considerably higher (62.8% by the LEA and 56.9% by the WLS method). Individual-level admixture analyses using STRUCTURE proved to be more informative than the multidimensional scaling analysis (MDSA) based on individual-based genetic distances. Of the 9 Yakutian-Simmental animals studied, 8 showed admixed origin, whereas of the 14 studied Yakutian-Kholmogory animals only 2 showed Yakutian ancestry (>5%). The mean posterior distributions of individual admixture coefficient (q) varied greatly among the samples in both hybrid populations. This study revealed a minor existing contribution of the Yakutian cattle in the Yakutian-Kholmogory hybrid population, but in the Yakutian-Simmental hybrid population, a major genetic contribution of the Yakutian cattle was seen. The results reflect the different crossbreeding patterns used in the development of the two hybrid populations. Additionally, molecular evidence for differences among individual admixture proportions was seen in both hybrid populations, resulting from the stochastic process in crossing over generations.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.171-177
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• 2020

BACKGROUND: Recently, biomass conversion from agricultural wastes to carbon-rich materials such as biochar has been recognized as a promising option to maintain or increase soil productivity, reduce nutrient losses, and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from the agro-ecosystem. This experiment was conducted to select an optimum conditions for enhancing the NH₄-N adsorption capacity of rice hull activated biochar. METHODS AND RESULTS: For deciding the proper molarity of KOH for enhancing its porosity, biochars treated with different molarity of KOH (0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8) were carbonized at 600℃ in the reactor. The maximum adsorption capacity was 1.464 mg g^-1, and an optimum molarity was selected to be 6 M KOH. For the effect of adsorption capacity to different carbonized temperatures, 6 M KOH-treated biochar was carbonized at 600℃ and 800℃ under the pyrolysis system. The result has shown that the maximum adsorption capacity was 1.76 mg g^-1 in the rice hull activated biochar treated with 6 M KOH at 600℃ of pyrolysis temperature, while its non-treated biochar was 1.17 mg g^-1. The adsorption rate in the rice hull activated biochar treated with 6 M KOH at 600℃ was increased at 62.18% compared to that of the control. Adsorption of NH₄-N in the rice hull activated biochar was well suited for the Langmuir model because it was observed that dimensionless constant (R_L) was 0.97 and 0.66 at 600℃ and 800℃ of pyrolysis temperatures, respectively. The maximum adsorption amount (q_m) and the bond strength constants (b) were 0.092 mg g^-1 and 0.001 mg L^-1, respectively, for the rice hull activated biochar treated with 6 M KOH at 600℃ of pyrolysis. CONCLUSION: Optimum condition of rice hull activated biochar was 6M KOH at 600℃ of pyrolysis temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.82-96
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• 2019

This study evaluated the status of watershed health in Geum River Basin by SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) hydrology and water quality. The watershed healthiness from watershed hydrology and stream water quality was calculated using multivariate normal distribution from 0(poor) to 1(good). Before evaluation of watershed healthiness, the SWAT calibration for 11 years(2005~2015) of streamflow(Q) at 5 locations with 0.50~0.77 average Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency and suspended solid (SS), total nitrogen(T-N), and total phosphorus(T-P) at 3 locations with 0.67~0.94, 0.59~0.79, and 0.61~0.79 determination coefficient($R^2$) respectively. For 24 years (1985~2008) the spatiotemporal change of watershed healthiness was analyzed with calibarted SWAT and 5 land use data of 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2008. The 2008 SWAT results showed that the surface runoff increased by 40.6%, soil moisture and baseflow decreased by 6.8% and 3.0% respectively compared to 1985 reference year. The stream water quality of SS, T-N, and T-P increased by 29.2%, 9.3%, and 16.7% respectively by land development and agricultural activity. Based on the 1985 year land use condition. the 2008 watershed healthiness of hydrology and stream water quality decreased from 1 to 0.94 and 0.69 respectively. The results of this study be able to detect changes in watershed environment due to human activity compared to past natural conditions.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.29-58
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• 2007

We develop a model to estimate the value of growth opportunities, which is based on the seminal papers of M&M(1961, 1963) and Lee(2006). Making use of the estimation model, we estimate a new proxy variable of the growth opportunities, other than the usual proxy variables such as quasi Tobin's Q, MBR, and so on. The new proxy variable of growth opportunities can represent a necessary condition to identify whether the increase in new investments are successful or not. The empirical findings on the growth opportunities during the IMF currency crisis period and the post-IMF period are as follows; First, the overall success rate of new investments is as low as 50%, that means only half of the listed firms were increasing new investments when they had the growth opportunities. Second, during the crisis, one third of the listed firms were experiencing negative growth opportunities. However, during the post-IMF period, the growth opportunities on new investments were turned to be positive due to the turnaround efforts of listed firms. Third, the value of intangible assets, which are resulting from the investment of R&D and human capital, are becoming more important than ever. It seems to be true that larger portions of the value of growth opportunities are coming from the intangible assets, not from the increases in new investments of the physical assets.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.659-672
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• 2001

Generally, design flood for a hydraulic structure is estimated using statistical analysis of runoff data. However, due to the lack of runoff data, it is difficult that the statistical method is applied for estimation of design flood. In this case, the synthetic unit hydrograph method is used generally and the models such as NYMO method, Snyder method, SCS method, and HYMO method have been widely used in Korea. In this study, these methods and KICT method, which is developed in year 2000, are compared and analyzed in 10 study areas. Firstly, peak flow and peak time of representative unit hydrograph and synthetic unit hydrograph in study area are compared, and secondly, the shape of unit hydrograph is compared using a root mean square error(RMSE). In Nakayasu method developed in Japan, synthetic unit hydrograph is very different from peak flow, peak time, and the shape of representative unit hydrograph, and KICT method(2000) is superior to others. Also, KICT method(2000) is superior to others in the aspects of using hydrologic and topographical data. Therefore, Nakayasu method is not a proper in hydrological practice. Moreover, it is considered that KICT model is a better method for the estimation of design flood. However, if other model, i.e. SCS method, Nakayasu method, and HYMO method, is used, parameters or regression equations must be adjusted by analysis of real data in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.4 s.109
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• pp.411-422
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• 2004

A limnological survey was conducted in a reservoir, Lake Hoengsung located in Kangwondo, Korea, from July 2000 to September 2001 on the monthly basis. Phosphorus loading from the watershed was estimated by measuring total phosphorus concentration in the main tributary. Secchi disc transparency, epilimnetic (0-5 m) turbidity, chlorophyll a (Chl-a), total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen(TN) and silica concentration were in the range of 0.9-3.5 m, 0.1-8.5 NTU, 0.3-32.4 mgChl $m^{-3}$, 5-46 mgP $m^{-3}$, 0.83-3.55 mgN $L^{-1}$ and 0.5-9.6 mgSi $L^{-1}$, respectively. Green algae and cyanobacteria dominated phytoplankton community in warm seasons, from July through October, 2000. In July a green alga (Scenedesmus sp.) was dominant with a maximum cell density of 10,480 cells mL. Cyanobacteria (Microcystics sp.) dominated in August and September with cell density of 3,492 and 295 cells mL ,respectively. Species diversity of phytoplankton was highest (2.22) in July. The trophic state of the reservoir can be classified as eutrophic on the basis of TP, Chl-a, and Secchi disc transparency. Because TP concentration was high in flood period, most of phosphorus loading was concentrated in rainy season. TP loading was calculated by multiplying TP and flow rate. The dam managing company measured inflow rate of the reservoir daily, while TP was measured by weekly surveys. TP of unmeasured days was estimated from the empirical relationship of TP and the flow rate of the main tributary; $TP=5.59Q^{0.45}\;(R^2=0.47)$. Annual TP loading was calculated to be 4.45 tP $yr^{-1}$, and the areal P loading was 0.77 gP $m^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$ which is similar to the critical P loading for eutrophication by Vollenweider's phosphorus model, 0.72 gP $m^{-2}\;yr^{-1}$.