• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Developmental Biology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.72-72
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• 2003

The present study examined the possibility of cryopreservation of the D-shaped and umbo larvae of arkshell (Scapharca broughtonii), in terms of the survival rates after freezing and thawing. D-shaped and umbo larvae of arkshells were obtained from a shellfish farming on Yosu city. The average shell lengths were $93.3 \pm 10.1 \mu$m and $201.7 \pm 13.5 \mu$, respectively. Five cryoprotectants (CPAs), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), glycerol, ethylene glycol (EG), propylene glycol (PG), and methanol, were tested at the concentrations of 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 M. After larvae suspended in CPAs, cryoprotectants were loaded in 0.5 ml straws at a larval density of 50-100 larvae per straw, and epuilibrated for 10 and 20 minute at room temperature ($23^{\circ}C$), repectively. Straws were cooled at a rate of $1^{\circ}C$/min from $0^{\circ}C$ to $-12^{\circ}C$, held for 5 min at $-12^{\circ}C$, and then cooled at $2^{\circ}C$/min to $-35^{\circ}C$ and equilibrated for 5 min followed by plunging in liquid nitrogen. After storage in liquid nitrogen for 1 day, straws were thawed in a $30^{\circ}C$ water. As soon as straws were observed to melt, larvae were diluted with an equal volume of ASW and then washed twice with a large volume of ASW at an interval of 2 min to unload the CPAs. The results showed that after equilibration for 10 and 20 minute at room temperature, no larvae survived using methanol as CPAs, and it was observed that larval shells all open slightly, and larval flesh broke down and slopped over the shells. The highest survival rates (D-shaped larvae: 77.6%, umbo larvae: 59.3%) were obtained with 2M DMSO, and 1.5M glycerol yielded survival rates of 53.8% for D-shaped larvae and 37.5% for umbo larvae. The surviving D-shaped larvae showed active rotary motion and perfect membrane integrity and cytoplasmic normality, and the vigorous movement of veliger cilia was observed inside the closed shells. The breakdown of tissue occurred in the abnormal larvae, and the isolated cell often run out of shells.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.710-719
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• 2023

Objective: The present study investigated whether protodioscin (PD), a steroidal saponin mainly found in rhizome of Dioscorea species, alleviates oxidative stress-induced damage of porcine oocytes during in vitro maturation. Methods: Oocytes were treated with different concentrations of PD (0, 1, 10, 100, and 200 µM) in the presence of 200 µM H₂O₂ during in vitro maturation. Following maturation, spindle morphology and mitogen-activated protein kinase activity was assessed along with reactive oxygen species level, GSH activity, and mRNA expression of endogenous antioxidant genes at the MII stage. On the day 7 after parthenogenetic activation, blastocyst formation rate was calculated and the quality of embryo and mRNA expression of development-related genes was evaluated. Results: Developmental competence was significantly poorer in the 0 µM PD-treated (control) group than in the non-treated (normal) and 10 µM PD-treated (10PD) groups. Although the reactive oxygen species level did not significantly differ between these three groups, the glutathione level and mRNA expression of antioxidant genes (superoxide dismutase 1 [SOD1], SOD2, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 [Nrf2], and hemo oxygenase-1 [HO-1]) were significantly higher in the normal and 10PD groups than in the control group. In addition, the percentage of oocytes with defective spindle and abnormal chromosomal alignment was significantly lower and the ratio of phosphorylated p44/42 to total p44/42 was significantly higher in the normal and 10PD groups than in the control group. The total cell number per blastocyst was significantly higher in the 10PD group than in the control group. The percentage of apoptotic cells in blastocysts was highest in the control group; however, the difference was not significant. mRNA expression of development-related genes (POU domain, class 5, transcription factor 1 [POU5F1], caudal type homeobox 2 [CDX2], Nanog homeobox [NANOG]) was consistently increased by addition of PD. Conclusion: The PD effectively improves the developmental competence and quality of blastocysts by protecting porcine oocytes against oxidative stress.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.305-312
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• 2023

Purpose: Although the damage caused by abnormal temperatures is extensive, blow-up or black ice is typical in concrete structures. In this study, PCM with high phase change energy was mixed with concrete to reduce temperature damage to concrete pavement. Method: In order to reduce temperature damage to low temperatures and high temperatures, capsule-type PCM with phase change temperatures of 4.5℃ and 44℃ was replaced by 10%, 30%, and 50%, and thermal performance experiments and compressive strength experiments were conducted using thermocouples and variable chambers. Result: As a result of the thermal performance experiment, it was found that the incorporation of PCM improves temperature resistance by up to 25% or more, and increases thermal resistance at all temperatures with high specific heat when substituted in large amounts. As a result of the compression strength experiment, a substitution of 30% or more resulted in a decrease in the compression strength, and a large strength difference was shown based on the phase change temperature of the PCM. Conclusion: The incorporation of PCMs has been shown to increase the thermal performance of concrete, with the greatest increase in thermal performance near the phase change temperature of PCM. In addition, a small strength reduction of 10% to 20% occurs at the highest substitution rate of 50% substitution, so there is no significant problem with usability, and additional PCM substitution is expected to improve thermal performance.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.393-402
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• 2023

Drought, which has been increasing in frequency and magnitude due to recent abnormal weather events, poses severe challenges in various sectors. To address this issue, it is important to develop technologies for drought monitoring, forecasting, and response in order to implement effective measures and safeguard the ecological health of aquatic systems during water scarcity caused by drought. This study aimed to predict water quality fluctuations during drought periods by integrating the watershed model HSPF and the water quality model QUAL-MEV. The researchers examined the SPI and RCP 4.5 scenarios, and analyzed water quality changes based on flow rates by simulating them using the HSPF and QUAL-MEV models. The study found a strong correlation between water flow and water quality during the low flow. However, the relationship between precipitation and water quality was deemed insignificant. Moreover, the flow rate and SPI6 exhibited different trends. It was observed that the relationship with the mid- to long-term drought index was not significant when predicting changes in water quality influenced by drought. Therefore, to accurately assess the impact of drought on water quality, it is necessary to employ a short-term drought index and develop an evaluation method that considers fluctuations in flow.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.223-231
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• 2001

The success of nuclear transplantation with mammalian oocytes depends critically on the potential of oocytes activation, which mainly caused to prevent the re-accumulation of maturation promoting factor (MPF). This study was conducted to compare the effect of combined treatment of lonomycin with a Hl-histone kinase inhibitor (dimethylaminopurine, DMAP) or cdc2 kinase inhibitor (sodium pyrophosphate, SPP) on activation of bovine oocytes. In vitro matured bovine oocytes with the first polar body (PB) and dense cytoplasm were assigned to 3 experimental groups. For activation treatment, oocytcs were exposed to 5 $\mu$M lonomycin for 5 min (Group 1), and followed by 1.9 mM dimethylaminopurine (DMAP) for 3 h (Group 2) or followed by 2 mM sodium pyrophosphate (SPP) for 3 h (Group 3). The activation effects in the three treatments and the control group (untreated) were judged by the extrusion of the second PB and formation of a pronucleus (PN). Differences among groups were analysed using one-way ANOVA after arc-sine transformation of proportional data. All three treatments led to high activation rates (90% to 95%), with significant difference from the control. However, the extrusion of the second PB and the rate of PN formation differed remarkably among treatments. In Group I and 3, about 95% of the oocytes had extruded the second polar body, but one PN had formed in a higher proportion of oocytes in Group 3 than in Group 1 (90% vs. 5%). In experiment 2, the rates of cleavage and development into blastocysts in Group 1 were significantly lower than those of Group 2 and 3 (8.7% and 0% vs. 50.5% and 11.6%, and 44.6% and 7.2%, respectively, P<0.05). In experiment 3, ~80% of parthenotes in Group 1 were developed with haploid chromosomal sets. However, when ionomycin was followed immediately by DMAP (Group 2). only 20% of parthenotes were haploid. In Group 3, combined treatment with ionomycin and SPP, the appearance of abnormal chromosomal tracts was significantly (P〈0.05) reduced and the proportion of haploid parthenotes was increased to 85% (17/20) than in Group 2. These results demonstrate that SPP acted as a cdc2 kinase inhibitor and formed the haploidy in oocyte activation. Thus, the present study suggests that cdc2 kinase inhibitor, such as sodium pyrophosphate, may have an effective role in oocyte activation for the production of cloned embryos/animals by nuclear transplantation.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.433-447
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• 2023

There is a growing demand for the stability of existing dams due to abnormal climate and the aging of dams. Emergency Action Plans (EAPs) for reservoir or dam failure only consider a single rainfall event. Therefore, this study simulates dam failure caused by continuous rainfall events, and proposes the establishment of EAP by selecting the optimal shelters. We define a mega rainfall event scenario caused by continuous rainfall events with 500-year frequency in the Chungju Dam watershed and estimate the mega flood. The mega flood event scenario is divided into two cases: scenario A represents the flooding case caused by discharge release from a dam, while scenario B is the case of a dam break. As a result of flood inundation analysis, the flooded damage area by the scenario A is 50.06 km² and the area by the scenario B is 6.1 times of scenario A (307.45 km²). We select optimal shelters for each administrative region in the city of Chungju, which has the highest inundation rate in the urban area. Seven shelter evaluation indicators from domestic and foreign shelter selection criteria are chosen, and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used to evaluate the alternatives. As a result of the optimal shelter selection, the six shelters are selected and five are schools. This study considers continuous rainfall events for inundation analysis and selection of optimal shelters. Also, the results of this study could be used as a reference for establishment of the EAP.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.343-350
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• 2023

Based on Lung CT Screening Reporting and Data System (Lung-RADS), which has been used to standardize reading for lung cancer screening since November 2016, the types and frequency of "S" modifier findings other than lung cancer were analyzed. As a result of this study, 360 cases (35.19%) of "S" modifier were found in 1,023 subjects, and the most frequent diseases were coronary calcification and emphysema, 145 (14.17%) of coronary calcification and 138 (13.49%) of emphysema, indicating that the discovery rate was very high compared to other findings. In addition, it was found to be highly associated with the duration of smoking, and in the case of coronary calcification, 9 cases (5.73%) were found in the non-smokers group A, 23 cases (11.44%) within 10 years of smoking, 39 cases (13.68%) in the C group within 20 years of smoking, and 31% of the E group over 30 years of smoking. In addition to coronary calcification and emphysema, abnormal findings of pneumonia, lung epilepsy, and mediastinal disease were also found to be p<0.05 as a result of the analysis of the association with the smoking period, indicating that the smoking period was affected.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.1B
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• pp.41-53
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• 2008

Unprecedented weather phenomena are occurring because of climate change: extreme heavy rains, heat waves, and severe rain storms after the rainy season. Recently, the frequency of these abnormal phenomena has increased. However, regular pattern or cycles cannot be found. Analysis of annual data or annual average data, which has been established a research method of climate change, should be applied to find frequency and tendencies of extreme climate events. In this paper, extreme indicators of precipitation and temperature marked by objectivity and consistency were established to analyze data collected by 66 observatories throughout Korea operated by the Meteorological Administration. To assess the statistical significance of the data, linear regression and Kendall-Tau method were applied for statistical diagnosis. The indicators were analyzed to find tendencies. The analysis revealed that an increase of precipitation along with a decrease of the number of rainy days. A seasonal trend was also found: precipitation rate and the heavy rainfall threshold increased to a greater extent in the summer(June-August) than in the winter (September-November). In the meanwhile, a tendency of temperature increase was more prominent in the winter (December-February) than in the summer (June-August). In general, this phenomenon was more widespread in inland areas than in coastal areas. Furthermore, the number of winter frost days diminished throughout Korea. As was mentioned in the literature, the progression of climate change has influenced the increase of temperature in the winter.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.389-396
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• 2023

In this study, dikaryotic strains of Lentinula edodes were generated by mono-mono hybridization using mating type analysis and their fruiting body characteristics were investigated. Approximately 100 monokaryotic strains were isolated from the basidiospores of Sanbaekhyhang, and homokaryotic strains were isolated from Chungheung 1ho using protoplast isolation and regeneration. Their mating types were evaluated and a total of 60 dikaryotic strains were hybridized. Using these strains, fruiting bodies were produced and their characteristics were examined after cultivation on sawdust media. The results indicated that the rate of hybridization was 100% and that 55 of 60 strains formed fruiting bodies. These showed normal pileus and gill structures; however,10 strains also produced fruiting bodies with abnormal pileus and gill structures. The weight and size of the fruiting bodies differed depending on the strains. Overall, further studies are needed for predicting the characteristics of hybridized strains based on their parental strains.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.43-52
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• 2024

Recent abnormal climate conditions have increased the risk of slope collapses, which frequently result in significant loss of life and property due to the absence of early prediction and warning dissemination. In this paper, we develop a slope condition analysis system using IoT sensors and AI-based camera to assess the condition of slopes. To develop the system, we conducted hardware and firmware design for measurement sensors considering the ground conditions of slopes, designed AI-based image analysis algorithms, and developed prediction and warning solutions and systems. We aimed to minimize errors in sensor data through the integration of IoT sensor data and AI camera image analysis, ultimately enhancing the reliability of the data. Additionally, we evaluated the accuracy (reliability) by applying it to actual slopes. As a result, sensor measurement errors were maintained within 0.1°, and the data transmission rate exceeded 95%. Moreover, the AI-based image analysis system demonstrated nighttime partial recognition rates of over 99%, indicating excellent performance even in low-light conditions. Through this research, it is anticipated that the analysis of slope conditions and smart maintenance management in various fields of Social Overhead Capital (SOC) facilities can be applied.