• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.56 no.4
• /
• pp.359-364
• /
• 2018

The taxonomy of Spirometra species has been controversial despite the medical and veterinary importance. Currently, only a few Spirometra species are considered valid species in the genus Spirometra. In the present study, the distribution of Spirometra species obtained from animals in Korea were identified by molecular analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (cox1) gene. A total of 28 Spirometra species specimens were analyzed. These were all collected between 1973 and 2008 in the Republic of Korea. Mitochondrial cox1 sequences were examined for a total of 28 specimens comprising 14 S. decipiens and 14 S. ranarum. The difference in partial cox1 sequences (316 bp) between S. erinaceieuropaei (KJ599680) and S. ranarum (this study) was 9.3%, while that between S. decipiens (KJ599679) and S. ranarum (this study) was 2.2%. Genetic analyses identified 2 Spirometra species in animals such as cat, leopard cat, dog, duck and snake in Korea as S. decipiens and S. ranarum. S. decipiens and S. ranarum were present in Gyeongnam Province (P), Jeonnam P, Gangwon P, Chungbuk P, and Seoul. S. decipiens was found in tadpoles, snakes, ducks, cats, leopard cats and dogs, while S. ranarum was found in cats and dogs. The ratio of S. decipiens:S. ranarum calculated from the molecular data was 14:14 (or 1:1). These results indicate that S. decipiens and S. ranarum are sympatrically distributed in Korea.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.75-100
• /
• 2000

In the 21th century, many people predict the change of agricultural conditions in our country because of the arrival of knowledge- information age. Now it is supposed that agricultural technology comes to $45%{\sim}50%$ level compare to advanced countries. So the development of new technology in agriculture are demanded all the more. Agriculture in the 21th century will be grown based on the connection of environment, knowledge and taffeta. The agricultural conditions in Kyongbuk has more profitablity and potentiality, because there are wide lands, distinguished 4 seasons, various main production crops and cultural inheritance etc. For the innovation of agricultural technology in Kyungbuk, province this plan presented 7 visions; such as foods-life, knowledge-brain, precisious environment, resouces-saving, export-market, traditional- specialization and development-participation agriculture and 7 basic strategies; such as environment-stabilization, speciality-discrimination, standard-modeliztion, demand-market, field-practicality, management-information, specialization-cooperation strategy. The major contents of this plan were presented to achieve strengthen -ment and advancement of competitive power on the agriculture of Kyongbuk; 21 superme technologies get to develop the highest technique, 21 major conventional projects will be mown continuously, 21 main clops snakes to intensify competitive power. Wheras, we will be propulsed 21 special projects for increasing a phase of Kyongbuk R D. A. and we inculuded 74 items of Si-Gym region for balanced development of area This plan consisted of 1,730 items in 84 fields and about 260 billion won will be invest every year. When it is finished successfully in 10 years, agricultural technical level of Kyungbuk will be not only promote to $80{\sim}90%$ level to advanced country, but also clanged to competitive industry, and farming villiages might be changed to a space of comfortable life.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.357-365
• /
• 2005

We present a B-spline fitting method based on genetic algorithm for the extraction of object contours from the complex image sequence, where objects with similar shape and intensity are adjacent each other. The proposed algorithm solves common malfitting problem of the existing B-spline fitting methods including snakes. Classical snake algorithms have not been successful in such an image sequence due to the difficulty in initialization and existence of multiple extrema. We propose a B-spline fitting method using a genetic algorithm with a new initial population generation and fitting function, that are designed to take advantage of the contour of the previous slice. The test results show that the proposed method extracts contour of individual object successfully from the complex image sequence. We validate the algorithm by false-positive/negative errors and relative amounts of agreements.

• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
• /
• v.9 no.6
• /
• pp.712-717
• /
• 2003

A novel multi-snake is proposed for efficient extraction of multi-object contours from a natural scene. An NTGST(noise-tolerant generalized symmetry transform) is used as a context-free attention operator to detect and locate multiple objects from a complex background and then the snake points are automatically initialized nearby the contour of each detected object using symmetry map of the NTGST before multiple snakes are introduced. These procedures solve the knotty subjects of automatic snake initialization and simultaneous extraction of multi-object contours in conventional snake algorithms. Because the snake points are initialized nearby the actual contour of each object, as close as possible, contours with high convexity and/or concavity can be easily extracted. The experimental results show that the proposed method can efficiently extract multi-object contours from a noisy and complex background of natural scenes.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.9 no.6
• /
• pp.266-274
• /
• 2009

An abdominal aortic aneurysm occurs most commonly in older individuals (between 65 and 75), and more in men and smokers. The most important complication of an abdominal aortic aneurysm is rupture, which is most often a fatal event. An abdominal aortic aneurysm weakens the walls of the blood vessel, leaving it vulnerable to bursting open, or rupturing, and spilling large amounts of blood into the abdominal cavity. surface modeling is very useful to surgery for quantitative analysis of abdominal aortic aneurysm. the 3D representation and surface modeling an abdominal aortic aneurysm structure taken from Multi Detector Computed Tomography. The construction of the 3D model is generally carried out by staking the contours obtained from 2D segmentation of each CT slice, so the quality of the 3D model strongly defends on the precision of segmentation process. In this work we present deformable model algorithm. deformable model is an energy-minimizing spline guided by external constraint force. External force which we call Gradient Vector Flow, is computed as a diffusion of a gradient vectors of gray level or binary edge map derived from the image. Finally, we have used snakes successfully for abdominal aortic aneurysm segmentation the performance of snake was visually and quantitatively validated by experts.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.88-92
• /
• 2019

The objective of this study was to report the group mating of Asian Keelback snake, Hebius vibakari, in South Korea. On May 20, 2009, the group mating of H. vibakari was observed in the Maeng-gol do, Jindo-gun, Jeollanam-do, in the rocky area (107 m above sea level) on the ridge of the island. Six female and five male snakes made a form of mating behavior called "mating ball". Two couples showed "tail-wrestling" which is the copulation behavior in snake species. During the mating, the temperature and humidity were $25.7^{\circ}C$ and 59%, respectively. The result of this study was the first case report of the group mating in H. vibakari, a rare reptile.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.173-184
• /
• 2016

Knowledge of the relationships among interspecific competition, spatial distributions and ecological niches plays an important role in understanding biogeographical distribution patterns of species. In this study, the distributional characteristics and ecological niches of the three Viperidae species (Gloydius ussuriensis, G. brevicaudus, and G. saxatilis) in South Korea were determined based on observation data and species distribution model. The effects of interspecific competition on geographical distribution and the division of the ecological niches of the vipers were also examined based on the models of predicted species distribution. The results showed that altitude was the most important environmental variable for their distribution, and the altitudes at which these snakes were distributed correlated with the climate of that region. Although interspecific ecological niches are quite overlapped, their predicted distribution patternsvary by the Taebaek Mountains. When overlaying the distribution models, most of the overlapping habitats were forest areas, which were relatively less overlapped than were the entire research areas. Thus, a parapatric distribution pattern was expected. The abundance of species occurring sympatrically was positively correlated with each other, indicating the lack of serious interspecies competition in this region. In conclusion, although the three Viperidae species in South Korea occupy similar ecological niches, these snakes exhibit parapatric distribution patterns without direct competition. Further research on various geographic variables (e.g., altitude, microhabitat characteristics) using relatively fine grid sizes, as well as further detailed ecological and behavioral research, is needed to determine the causative factors for the parapatric distribution pattern.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.224-233
• /
• 1983

An experimental study was carried out to observe the susceptibility of several kinds of laboratory animals to Fibricola seoulensis infection, a diplostomatid fluke of mammals. The metacercariae were obtained from the viscera of the snakes, Natrix tigrina lateralis and 50~2,000 in number each was artificially fed to a total of 127 animals; albino rats, mice, dogs, cats, rabbits and chickens. After 3 days to 8 weeks the animals were sacrificed and the recovery rate of worms as well as their maturity was observed. The results are as follows: 1. The overall worm recovery rates throughout the experimental period was highest in albino rats (40.0%) followed by mice (33.9%), cats (20.9%), dogs (11.4%), rabbits (0.05%) and chickens (0%). However, the recovery rates in the same host decreased as infection progressed longer and variable by the amount of metacercariae given. 2. From albino rats and mice, the highest recovery rates were obtained in 1,000 and 200-metacercariae infection groups respectively, and it is considered that such amount should be the optimum dose for experimental infection of these animals. 3. The main location of F. seoulensis in experimental animals was small intestine especially the duodenum. 4. The maturity index (No. mature worms/ No. examined) was 100% in albino rats and mice, while only 22.7% or 0% in dogs or cats respectively. From the results, it is concluded that albino rats and mice are the most susceptible hosts for F. seoulensis infection among six kinds of laboratory animals examined.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.41-46
• /
• 1985

The therapeutic effects of praziquantel on Fibricola seoulensis infection were studied by experimental infection of albino rats with the metacercariae obtained from the snakes. Total 51 albino rats were infected each with 500 or 1, 000 meta cercariae in number through intragastric tubes. One or four weeks la er the rats were treated with 1, 5, 10 or 20 mg/kg single dose of prazipuantel and sacrificed after 3 days or 10-120 minutes to search for the worms in their small intestine. The worm recovery rate at 3 days after the treatment was 10.7 % in 1 mg/kg dose group and o. 03~0.2% in 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg groups, while that of untreated control was 51. 3%. The minimum effective dose to treat F. seoulensis infection in the rats is considered to be 5 mg/kg in single dose. By observing the distribution pattern of worms in the small intestine after the treatment, dislodgement of the worms from the duodenum, their normal habitat, to the lower portions was recognizable within as early as 10 minutes. The majority of worms was found to have descended to the ileo-caecal portion after 60-120 minutes.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.21-29
• /
• 1984

A scanning eletron microscopic study was performed to observe the tegumental surface of adult Fibricola seoulensis. The adult worms were collected from the small intestine of mice 5 days to 3 weeks after experimental infection with the metacercariae. The metacercariae were obtained from the viscera of the snakes, Matrix tigrina lateralis, by artificial digestion technique. The results were as follows: 1. The tegument of anterior body was covered with cobblestone-like cytoplasmic processes and that of posterior body showed finger-like processes. The posterior body had 4-5 large transverse wrinklings which formed many discontinued shallow rugae. 2. The entire surface of anterior body was regularly arranged with the spines of which tips diverged into 3 to 4 points. They were densely packed in anterior mid-median portion of dorsal surface where appeared a few spines indented upto 5 points. Farther laterally and posteriorly from this portion, the pointed spines were more sparse and became single tipped and extended to anterior one-third of posterior body, 3. The posterior surface of oral sucker was armed with 50-60 spines having 2-3 tips and ventral sucker also covered with such spines. On anteriormost dorsal surface arranged 60-70 spade-shaped spines. The tribocytic organ was armed with many stout recurved pile-like spines arranged radially. 4. There were 3 types of sensory papillae. The ciliated knob-like (Type I) papillae were almost bilaterally symmetrical in ventral and dorsal surfaces of anterior body, and abundant especially aroundbases of oral and ventral suckers, tribocytic organ, and in lateral margins of anterior body. About 24 non-ciliated round swellings (Type II) were observed around each lip of oral and ventral suckers. The plate-like elevated papilla without cilium (Type III) was found to distribute only in posterior body. These 3 types of papillae seem to be tangoreceptive and/or rheoreceptive in function when their morphology and distributions are considered.