• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.1001-1006
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• 2024

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effect of Codonopsis pilosula polysaccharide (CPP) on the motility, mitochondrial integrity, acrosome integrity rate, and antioxidant ability of sheep sperm after preservation at 4℃. Methods: Semen from healthy adult rams were collected and divided into four groups with separate addition of 0, 200, 400, and 1,000 mg/L CPP. Sperm motility was analyzed using the Computer-Assisted Semen Analysis software after preservation at 4℃ for 24, 72, 120, and 168 h. Sperm acrosome integrity rate was analyzed by Giemsa staining at 24, 72, and 120 h, and mitochondrial membrane integrity was analyzed by Mito-Tracker Red CMXRos. The total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content of spermatozoa were measured after 120 h of preservation. Results: The sperm viability and forward-moving sperm under 200 mg/L CPP were significantly higher than that in the control group at 72 h (61.28%±3.89% vs 52.83%±0.70%, 51.53%±4.06% vs 42.84%±1.14%), and 168 h (47.21%±0.85% vs 41.43%±0.37%, 38.68%±0.87% vs 31.68%±0.89%). The percentage of fast-moving sperm (15.03%±1.10% vs 11.39%±1.03%) and slow-moving sperm (23.63%±0.76% vs 20.29%±1.11%) in the 200 mg/L group was significantly higher than control group at 168 h. The mitochondrial membrane integrity of the sperm in the group with 200 mg/L CPP was significantly higher than those in the control group after storage at 4℃ for 120 h (74.76%±2.54% vs 65.67%±4.51%, p<0.05). The acrosome integrity rate in the group with 200 mg/L (87.66%±1.26%) and 400 mg/L (84.00%±2.95%) was significantly higher than those in the control group (80.65%±0.16%) after storage for 24 h (p<0.05). CPP also increased T-AOC and decreased the MDA concentration after preservation at 4℃ (p<0.05). Conclusion: Adding CPP could improve the T-AOC of sperm, inhibit lipid peroxidation, and facilitate semen preservation.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.270-279
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• 2005

Under the research project supported by Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), we have conducted the development of GPR systems for landmine detection. Until 2005, we have finished development of two prototype GPR systems, namely ALIS (Advanced Landmine Imaging System) and SAR-GPR (Synthetic Aperture Radar-Ground Penetrating Radar). ALIS is a novel landmine detection sensor system combined with a metal detector and GPR. This is a hand-held equipment, which has a sensor position tracking system, and can visualize the sensor output in real time. In order to achieve the sensor tracking system, ALIS needs only one CCD camera attached on the sensor handle. The CCD image is superimposed with the GPR and metal detector signal, and the detection and identification of buried targets is quite easy and reliable. Field evaluation test of ALIS was conducted in December 2004 in Afghanistan, and we demonstrated that it can detect buried antipersonnel landmines, and can also discriminate metal fragments from landmines. SAR-GPR (Synthetic Aperture Radar-Ground Penetrating Radar) is a machine mounted sensor system composed of B GPR and a metal detector. The GPR employs an array antenna for advanced signal processing for better subsurface imaging. SAR-GPR combined with synthetic aperture radar algorithm, can suppress clutter and can image buried objects in strongly inhomogeneous material. SAR-GPR is a stepped frequency radar system, whose RF component is a newly developed compact vector network analyzers. The size of the system is 30cm x 30cm x 30 cm, composed from six Vivaldi antennas and three vector network analyzers. The weight of the system is 17 kg, and it can be mounted on a robotic arm on a small unmanned vehicle. The field test of this system was carried out in March 2005 in Japan.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.293-305
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• 2016

Objective: This study aims to measure cognitive load levels by analyzing the EEG of Koreans and foreigners, when they read a Korean text with care selected by level from the grammar and vocabulary aspects, and compare the cognitive load levels through quantitative values. The study results can be utilized as basic data for more scientific approach, when Korean texts or books are developed, and an evaluation method is built, when the foreigners encounter them for learning or an assignment. Background: Based on 2014, the number of the foreign students studying in Korea was 84,801, and they increase annually. Most of them are from Asian region, and they come to Korea to enter a university or a graduate school in Korea. Because those foreign students aim to learn within Universities in Korea, they receive Korean education from their preparation for study in Korea. To enter a university in Korea, they must acquire grade 4 or higher level in the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), or they need to complete a certain educational program at each university's affiliated language institution. In such a program, the learners of the Korean language receive Korean education based on texts, except speaking domain, and the comprehension of texts can determine their academic achievements in studying after they enter their desired schools (Jeon, 2004). However, many foreigners, who finish a language course for the short-term, and need to start university study, cannot properly catch up with university classes requiring expertise with the vocabulary and grammar levels learned during the language course. Therefore, reading education, centered on a strategy to understand university textbooks regarded as top level reading texts to the foreigners, is necessary (Kim and Shin, 2015). This study carried out an experiment from a perspective that quantitative data on the readers of the main player of reading education and teaching materials need to be secured to back up the need for reading education for university study learners, and scientifically approach educational design. Namely, this study grasped the difficulty level of reading through the measurement of cognitive loads indicated in the reading activity of each text by dividing the difficulty of a teaching material (book) into eight levels, and the main player of reading into Koreans and foreigners. Method: To identify cognitive loads indicated upon reading Korean texts with care by Koreans and foreigners, this study recruited 16 participants (eight Koreans and eight foreigners). The foreigners were limited to the language course students studying the intermediate level Korean course at university-affiliated language institutions within Seoul Metropolitan Area. To identify cognitive load, as they read a text by level selected from the Korean books (difficulty: eight levels) published by King Sejong Institute (Sejonghakdang.org), the EEG sensor was attached to the frontal love (Fz) and occipital lobe (Oz). After the experiment, this study carried out a questionnaire survey to measure subjective evaluation, and identified the comprehension and difficulty on grammar and words. To find out the effects on schema that may affect text comprehension, this study controlled the Korean texts, and measured EEG and subjective satisfaction. Results: To identify brain's cognitive load, beta band was extracted. As a result, interactions (Fz: p =0.48; Oz: p =0.00) were revealed according to Koreans and foreigners, and difficulty of the text. The cognitive loads of Koreans, the readers whose mother tongue is Korean, were lower in reading Korean texts than those of the foreigners, and the foreigners' cognitive loads became higher gradually according to the difficulty of the texts. From the text four, which is intermediate level in difficulty, remarkable differences started to appear in comparison of the Koreans and foreigners in the beginner's level text. In the subjective evaluation, interactions were revealed according to the Koreans and foreigners and text difficulty (p =0.00), and satisfaction was lower, as the difficulty of the text became higher. Conclusion: When there was background knowledge in reading, namely schema was formed, the comprehension and satisfaction of the texts were higher, although higher levels of vocabulary and grammar were included in the texts than those of the readers. In the case of a text in which the difficulty of grammar was felt high in the subjective evaluation, foreigners' cognitive loads were also high, which shows the result of the loads' going up higher in proportion to the increase of difficulty. This means that the grammar factor functions as a stress factor to the foreigners' reading comprehension. Application: This study quantitatively evaluated the cognitive loads of Koreans and foreigners through EEG, based on readers and the text difficulty, when they read Korean texts. The results of this study can be used for making Korean teaching materials or Korean education content and topic selection for foreigners. If research scope is expanded to reading process using an eye-tracker, the reading education program and evaluation method for foreigners can be developed on the basis of quantitative values.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.211-232
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• 2014

People search a certain object or a person so many time in a day. Besides the information about what the target is, perceptual information of the target can influence on the search process. In the current study, using an eye-tracker we aimed to examine whether the perceptual information of previewing target stimuli on the visual search process of the target and the task performance. Participants had to identify the previewing target stimulus presented in the middle of the screen, and then had to search the target among 8 items presented in a circle array, and had to decide whether the size of the target in the search display was same as that of the previewing stimulus. The experimental conditions were divided into 8 within-subject conditions by whether the search display was consisted of all the same size items or different size items (homogeneous search display vs. inhomogeneous search display), by the size of the preview target stimulus, and by the size of the target stimulus in the search display. Research hypothesis is that the size information of the previewing influence on the visual search process of the target and task performance when the items in the search display are in different sizes. In the results of behavioral data analysis, the reaction time showed the main effect of the search display, and the size of the target stimulus in the search display. and the interaction between the size consistency effect of target stimulus and the search display condition. In the results of analysis of eye-movement information, the Initial Saccade to Target Ratio measurement showed the interaction between the size consistency effect of target stimulus and the search display condition as the reaction time measurement did. That is, the size consistency effect of target stimulus only in the inhomogeneous search display condition indicated that participants searched the items in the same size as that of preview target stimulus. Post-hoc analyses revealed that the search and task performance in the inhomogeneous display condition were faster when the target size was consistent, but rather slower when the target size was inconsistent.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.303-309
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• 2005

This study was conducted to examine the effects of OA on metaphase of meiosis II and the mitochondrial activity of cytoplasm in bovine cumulus oocytes complexes(COCs) during in vitro maturation. Hanwoo COCs were collected from the slaughterhouse cow ovaries and matured in TCM199 supplemented with $0.1\%$ PVA, 0.2 uM, 2 uM, 20 uM OA for the maturation rate of OA concentration. For the maturation effects between OA and cycloheximide(CX), COCs were matured in TCM199 with 25 ug/mL CX, 25 ug/mL CX (6 hrs culture) plus 2 uM OA or 2 uM OA only at a atmosphere $5\%\;CO_2,\;95\%$ air $39^{\circ}C$ for 6, 12, 24 hrs. To evaluate the nuclear types of matured COCs, cumulus cells were removedby $0.5\%$ hyaluronidase sol. and oocytes were fixed in 1:3 acetic acid ethyl alcohol for 30 sec. and then stained with $0.1\%$ basic Fuchsin sol. For the detection of fluoriscent intensity (FI) of matures oocytes, cumulus cells were removed same as performed above and were stained with 20 nM mite tracker for 20 min. at $39^{\circ}C$. Mitochondrial activity of FI in matured oocytes was imaged by laser conforcal microscopy (Fluoview, Olympus, Japan) and were measured scanned face on 5 um from median to endpoint of oocytes. Statical analysis of nuclear types observed the three replicates was carried out with ANOVA and Fisher's protected least significant difference test using the STATVIEW program. FI of matures oocytes was compared the multiples of the least intensity among the measured oocytes. Maturing in TCM199 supplemented with $0.1\%$ PVA, 0.2 uM, 2 uM, 20 uM OA, metaphase B were showed 72.0, 50.0, 70.0, $68.8\%$, respectively and there were different significant(p<0.05). In the case of treatment with OA and CX, metaphase were $73.8\%,\;8.2\%,\;45.5\%,\;73.7\%$ in $0.1\%$ PVA-TCM199, 25 ug/mL CX, 25 ug/mL CX plus OA or 2uM OA only, respeclively. FI was revealed the increasing tendency during the process of maturation. Whereas FI in CX was decreased about 3 times compared to the other treatments of 6 hrs maturation. We conclude that OA regulates bovine COCs maturation and induces the mitochondrial activity during the process of maturation.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.1154-1169
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• 2013

The present work was performed to find behavioral characteristics of elementary school students corresponding to the motivation system on science learning (SL-BIS/BAS; Behavioral Inhibition/Activation System about Science Learning) in the observation situation. Eye-tracking was used for this study, which is one of the neurophysiological methods. The findings of present study were as follows: First, students who have sensitive motivation system to SL-BIS (SL-BIS group) showed meaningfully shorter fixation duration the whole time during an observation task than students who have sensitive motivation system to SL-BAS (SL-BAS group) (p<.05). Total fixation counts of SL-BIS group were significantly larger than SL-BAS group and it indicates that SL-BIS group often generated new fixations. Therefore, fixation duration per count of SL-BAS group was longer than that of SLBIS group. Second, we studied fixations in situations with movement corresponding to the motivation system on science learning. SL-BIS group and SL-BAS group exhibited similar fixation duration in the study task segment with movement, which is one of the stimulus attracting students. However, for the study task segment when the movement was finished, total fixation duration and fixation duration per count of SL-BAS group were meaningfully longer than those of SL-BIS group. Third, comparing fixation targets classified by factors of study task, SL-BIS group showed fixation on the target that is not important for the study task. But SL-BAS group concentrated on the target-related factor of the study task. The present work could be helpful in understanding students' characteristics corresponding to the motivation system on science learning in observation situation and for making a learning & teaching plan that is suitable to the feature of students.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

Pintail (Anas acuta) is the major wintering bird in South Korea and known as a major mediator of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Pintail migrates long distances between Russian Siberia and Korea. This species prefers a rice paddy area as their winter habitat. The purpose of this study is to provide the data necessary for the conservation and management of bird habitats in Korea by understanding the wintering home-range and habitat of pintail in Korea. We captured six pintails using a cannon-net in the winter of 2015 and attached the GPS-mobile phone based telemetry (WT-300) on them to study the wintering home-range and wintering habitat. We analyzed the tracking location data using ArcGIS 9.0 Animal Movement Extension and calculated Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) and Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP). The average home-range in the wintering ground analyzed by MCP was $677.3km^2$ (SD=130.2, n=6) while the maximum and minimum were $847.7km^2$ and $467.5km^2$, respectively. Extents of home-range analyzed by KDE were $194.7km^2$ (KDE 90%), $77.4km^2$ (KDE 70%), and $35.3km^2$ (KDE 50%). The pintails mostly used both sea and paddy field as habitat in the winter season and utilized paddy fields more during the nighttime and than the daytime. We concluded that the home-range and habitat of pintails in the winter could be used as the reference data for the preservation of species, management of habitats, and coping with a breakout of HPAI.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.302-318
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to study to the effect of presenting SBF questions on the level of conceptual achievement and eye movement of elementary students in seasonal constellation learning that requires systems thinking. In this study, the effectiveness of SBF questions was divided into experimental groups and comparison groups, and scientific texts with different question types were presented to analyze the level of conceptual achievement and differences in eye movement of sixth-grade elementary students. Data analysis quantitatively analyzed the pre- and post-test results of the developed concept test paper and the eye movement data when learning scientific texts related to seasonal constellations. As a result of the study, first, the SBF question was a valid learning strategy for learning seasonal constellations. The SBF question showed a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) in the pre- and post-test between groups, and a statistically significant difference (p<0.001) in the pre- and post-test within the group. Second, SBF questions had a positive effect on students' learning by inducing learners with low preconceptions to area of interest that help them achieve concepts. In other words, when presenting SBF questions with visual data from a space-based perspective, it was confirmed based on the results of eye movement analysis that there was a significant difference in total fixation count (p<0.01) of learners. On the other hand, for learners with high scientific preconceptions, the effect of exploration was not significant because the preconceptions of the learners themselves acted as a hard core rather than the effect of SBF questions. This study is different from existing seasonal constellation learning studies in that it provides quantitative data through pre- and post-test and eye movement analysis in the seasonal constellation learning process, and can help elementary students learn seasonal constellations.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.408-419
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• 2023

Background: Ginsenoside compound K (CK), the main active metabolite in Panax ginseng, has shown good safety and bioavailability in clinical trials and exerts neuroprotective effects in cerebral ischemic stroke. However, its potential role in the prevention of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury remains unclear. Our study aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism of ginsenoside CK against cerebral I/R injury. Methods: We used a combination of in vitro and in vivo models, including oxygen and glucose deprivation/reperfusion induced PC12 cell model and middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion induced rat model, to mimic I/R injury. Intracellular oxygen consumption and extracellular acidification rate were analyzed by Seahorse multifunctional energy metabolism system; ATP production was detected by luciferase method. The number and size of mitochondria were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and MitoTracker probe combined with confocal laser microscopy. The potential mechanisms of ginsenoside CK on mitochondrial dynamics and bioenergy were evaluated by RNA interference, pharmacological antagonism combined with co-immunoprecipitation analysis and phenotypic analysis. Results: Ginsenoside CK pretreatment could attenuate mitochondrial translocation of DRP1, mitophagy, mitochondrial apoptosis, and neuronal bioenergy imbalance against cerebral I/R injury in both in vitro and in vivo models. Our data also confirmed that ginsenoside CK administration could reduce the binding affinity of Mul1 and Mfn2 to inhibit the ubiquitination and degradation of Mfn2, thereby elevating the protein level of Mfn2 in cerebral I/R injury. Conclusion: These data provide evidence that ginsenoside CK may be a promising therapeutic agent against cerebral I/R injury via Mul1/Mfn2 mediated mitochondrial dynamics and bioenergy.