• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.50-57
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• 2018

Meat comes from the skeletal muscles of farm animals, such as pigs, chickens, and cows. Skeletal muscles are composed of many muscle fibers. Muscle fibers are categorized into three types, fiber type I, IIA, and IIB, based on their contractile speed and metabolic properties. Different muscle fiber types have different biochemical, physiological, and biophysical characteristics. Especially, the characteristics of muscle fiber type I and IIB are opposite to each other. Muscle fiber type I has a relatively strong oxidative metabolic trait and a higher content of lipids. In contrast to fiber type I, muscle fiber type IIB has a strong glycolytic metabolic trait and a relatively lower content of lipids and a higher content of glycogen. Muscle fiber type IIA has intermediate properties between fiber type I and IIB. Thus, muscles with different fiber type compositions exhibit different ante- and post-mortem muscle characteristics. In particular, the different metabolic traits of muscles due to the different compositions of the fiber types strongly affect the biochemical and physiological processes during the conversion of muscle to meat and subsequently influence the quality of the meat. Therefore, understating muscle metabolism and muscle fiber characteristics is very important when discussing the traits of meat quality. This review is an overview on basic muscle metabolism, muscle fiber characteristics, and their influence on meat quality and finally provides a comprehensive understanding about the fundamental traits of muscles and meat quality.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.122-142
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• 2012

The importance of rainfed areas and animal agriculture on productivity enhancement and food security for economic rural growth in Asia is discussed in the context of opportunities for increasing potential contribution from them. The extent of the rainfed area of about 223 million hectares and the biophysical attributes are described. They have been variously referred to inter alia as fragile, marginal, dry, waste, problem, threatened, range, less favoured, low potential lands, forests and woodlands, including lowlands and uplands. Of these, the terms less favoured areas (LFAs), and low or high potential are quite widely used. The LFAs are characterised by four key features: i) very variable biophysical elements, notably poor soil quality, rainfall, length of growing season and dry periods, ii) extreme poverty and very poor people who continuously face hunger and vulnerability, iii) presence of large populations of ruminant animals (buffaloes, cattle, goats and sheep), and iv) have had minimum development attention and an unfinished wanting agenda. The rainfed humid/sub-humid areas found mainly in South East Asia (99 million ha), and arid/semi-arid tropical systems found in South Asia (116 million ha) are priority agro-ecological zones (AEZs). In India for example, the ecosystem occupies 68% of the total cultivated area and supports 40% of the human and 65% of the livestock populations. The area also produces 4% of food requirements. The biophysical and typical household characteristics, agricultural diversification, patterns of mixed farming and cropping systems are also described. Concerning animals, their role and economic importance, relevance of ownership, nomadic movements, and more importantly their potential value as the entry point for the development of LFAs is discussed. Two examples of demonstrated success concern increasing buffalo production for milk and their expanded use in semi-arid AEZs in India, and the integration of cattle and goats with oil palm in Malaysia. Revitalised development of the LFAs is justified by the demand for agricultural land to meet human needs e.g. housing, recreation and industrialisation; use of arable land to expand crop production to ceiling levels; increasing and very high animal densities; increased urbanisation and pressure on the use of available land; growing environmental concerns of very intensive crop production e.g. acidification and salinisation with rice cultivation; and human health risks due to expanding peri-urban poultry and pig production. The strategies for promoting productivity growth will require concerted R and D on improved use of LFAs, application of systems perspectives for technology delivery, increased investments, a policy framework and improved farmer-researcher-extension linkages. These challenges and their resolution in rainfed areas can forcefully impact on increased productivity, improved livelihoods and human welfare, and environmental sustainability in the future.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.29-41
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• 2005

Objectives : Although previous anatomic, physiological and biophysics studies have examined the acupuncture meridian system, much remains unclear and controversial. This study was undertaken to examine electrical potential aspects of the meridian system. Electric potential was measured at the well and sea acupoints on the twelve acupuncture meridians (AM), on forty patients half with loin lesions, and pain of loin and lower extremities(LL) and half with shoulder lesions, and aching of shoulder and arm(SA). The object was to determine to what extent electric potential is an important risk factor between LL and SA. Methods : At the left and the right side with each of twenty LL and twenty SA patients, physiograph was used to measure electric potentials of AM ten sessions. T-test was used to compare the mean of electric potential between the two different pain groups and multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the risk of the 24 electric potentials measured. Results and Conclusions : In the LL, the only electric potential that was statistically significantly greater than SA was the bladder meridian on the left side. On the contrary, electric potentials in SA, which includes the large intestine, pericardium, triple burner, spleen, stomach, kidney and gallbladder meridians, were statistically larger than those of LL at the same side. On the right side, the five kinds of electric potentials(lung, large intestine, small intestine, pericardium and gallbladder meridian) of LL were statistically larger than those of SA. On the triple burner, stomach and kidney meridians electric potentials of SA were larger than those in LL. After adjusting for 24 electric potentials, pain risk factors, and different illness categories, multiple stepwise selection logistic regression modeling, resulted in the final selection of a total of 13 statistically significant electric potentials. These were 7 electric potentials at left side - small intestine, triple burner, spleen, stomach, bladder, liver and gallbladder meridian, and 6 at rght side - lung, large intestine, heart, pericardium, kidney and bladder meridian.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.383-388
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• 2015

$K^+$ outward currents in the outer hair cells (OHCs) of circling mice (homozygous (cir/cir) mice), an animal model for human deafness (DFNB6 type), were investigated using a whole cell patch clamp technique. Littermate heterozygous (+/cir) mice of the same age (postnatal day (P) 0-P6) were used as controls. Similar slow rising $K^+$ currents were observed in both genotypes, but their biophysical and pharmacological properties were quite different. The values of Vhalf for activation were significantly different in the heterozygous (+/cir) and homozygous (cir/cir) mice ($-8.1{\pm}2.2mV$, heterozygous (+/cir) mice (n=7) and $-17.2{\pm}4.2mV$, homozygous (cir/cir) mice (n=5)). The inactivation curve was expressed by a single first order Boltzmann equation in the homozygous (cir/cir) mice, while it was expressed by a sum of two first order Boltzmann equations in the heterozygous (+/cir) mice. The $K^+$ current of homozygous (cir/cir) mice was more sensitive to TEA in the 1 to 10 mM range, while the 4-AP sensitivities were not different between the two genotypes. Removal of external $Ca^{2+}$ did not affect the $K^+$ currents in either genotype, indicating that the higher sensitivity of $K^+$ current to TEA in the homozygous (cir/cir) mice was not due to an early expression of $Ca^{2+}$ activated $K^+$ channels. Our results suggest that the $K^+$ outward current of developing homozygous (cir/cir) mice OHCs is different in both biophysical and pharmacological aspects than that of heterozygous (+/cir) mice.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 1997

Characteristics, pathogenicity and control of the causative organisms isolated front diseased cultured flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus were studied. The causative organisms were identified as E tarda by biochemical and biophysical characteristics. Also, it strains were named as E tarda KBF-1 and E tarda KMF-1, and optimal pH of E tarda KBF-1 and E tarda KMF-1 were 8.0, and optimal concentration of NaCl. E tarda KBF-1 was 0% and E tarda KMF-1 was 1%. In the pathogenicity test, 0~10 of the flounders of artificially infected group(E tarda KBF-1) with $1.0{\times}10^7$ cfu/fish were died within 60 hrs, but 0~9 flounders infected group with 41.0{\times}10^6$ cfu/fish were died within 60 hrs. Also, 0~10 flounders infected group(E tarda KMF-1) with $1.0{\times}10^7$ cfu/fish were died within 36 hrs, while 0~7 flounders infected with $1.0{\times}10^6$ cfu/fish were died within 60 hrs. Drug sensitivity of E tarda KBF-1 strain was resistant to AM, CF and N, and intermediate to E, K and S, and sensitivity to C, G, SxT and FF. But E tarda KMF-1 strain was resistant to CF, E and V, and intermediate to AM, C, N and SxT, and sensitivity to GM and FF.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.31-41
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• 2011

This study was conducted to predict future land-cover changes under climate change scenarios and to cluster analysis of regional land-cover characteristics. To simulate the future land-cover according to climate change scenarios - A1B, A2, and B1 of the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES), Dyna-CLUE (Conversion of Land Use Change and its Effects) was applied for modeling of competition among land-use types in relation with socioeconomic and biophysical driving factors. Gyeonggi-do were selected as study areas. The simulation results from 2010 to 2040 suggested future land-cover changes under the scenario conditions. All scenarios resulted in a gradual decrease in paddy area, while upland area continuously increased. A1B scenario showed the highest increase in built-up area, but all scenarios showed only slight changes in forest area. As a result of cluster analysis with the land-cover component scores, 31 si/gun in Gyeonggi-do were classified into three clusters. This approach is expected to be useful for evaluating and simulating land-use changes in relation to development constraints and scenarios. The results could be used as fundamental basis for providing policy direction by considering regional land-cover characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.389-401
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• 2011

Most nations around the world have expressed significant concern in the climate change due to a rapid increase in green-house gases and thus reach an international agreement to control total amount of these gases for the mitigation of global warming. As the most important absorber of carbon dioxide, one of major green-house gases, forest resources should be more tightly managed with a means to measure their total amount, forest biomass, efficiently and accurately. Forest biomass has close relations with forest areas and tree height. Airborne LiDAR data helps extract biophysical properties on forest resources such as tree height more efficiently by providing detailed spatial information about the wide-range ground surface. Many researchers have thus developed various methods to estimate tree height using LiDAR data, which retain different performance and characteristics depending on forest environment and data characteristics. In this study, we attempted to investigate such various techniques to estimate tree height, elaborate their advantages and limitations, and suggest future research directions. We first examined the characteristics of LiDAR data applied to forest studies and then analyzed methods on filtering, a precedent procedure for tree height estimation. Regarding the methods for tree height estimation, we classified them into two categories: individual tree-based and regression-based method and described the representative methods under each category with a summary of their analysis results. Finally, we reviewed techniques regarding data fusion between LiDAR and other remote sensing data for future work.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.339-347
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• 1997

A cytopathogenic virus was isolated from the brain tissues of pig showing ataxia. The biophysical, morphological and serological assay showed that the isolate belongs to a coronavirus. The differential identification of the isolate with monoclonal antibodies against A and X sites of transmissible gastroenteritis virus indicated that the virus has a characteristics of porcine respiratory coronavirus. The RT-PCR on nucleocapsid region of TGEV also showed that the isolate has the same conserved sequence. The diverse pathogenesis of PRCV and its implication in field were discussed.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.221-224
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• 2005

Hyperspectral image data have great potential to depict more detailed information on biophysical characteristics of surface materials, which are not usually available with multispectral data. This study aims to test the potential of hyperspectral data for classifying five soil classes defined by the vector product interim terrain data (VITD). In this study, we try to classify surface materials of bare soil over the study area in Korea using both hyperspectral and multispectral image data. Training and test samples for classification are selected with using VITD vector map. The spectral angle mapper (SAM) method is applied to the EO-I Hyperion data and Landsat ETM+ data, that has been radiometrically corrected and geo-rectified. Higher classification accuracy is obtained with the hyperspectral data for classifying five soil classes of gravel, evaporites, inorganic silt and sand.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.614-618
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• 2001

Low-threshold T-type $Ca^{2+}$ channels are distinctive voltage-operated gates for external $Ca^{2+}$ entry around a resting membrane potential due to their low voltage activation. These phenomena have already been extensively studied due to their relevance in diverse physiological functions. Recently, three T-type $Ca^{2+}$ channel ${\alpha}$$_1$subunits were cloned and their biophysical properties were characterized after expression in mammalian expression systems. In this study, ${\alpha_IG} and {\alpha_IH}$ low-threshold $Ca^{2+}$ channels were expressed and characterized in Xenopus oocytes after adding 5' and 3'untranslated portions of a Xenopus ${\beta}$ globin to improve their expression levels. The added portions dramatically enhanced the expression levels of the ${\alpha_IG} and {\alpha_IH}$ T-type channels. When currents were recorded in 10 mM $Ba^{2+}$ as the charge carrier, the activation thresholds were about -60 mV, peak currents appeared at -20 mV, and the reversal potentials were between +40 and +45. The activation time constants were very similar to each other, while the inactivation time constants of the ${\alpha_IG}$ currents were smaller than those of ${\alpha_IH}$. Taken together, the electrophysiological properties of the ${\alpha_IG} and {\alpha_IH}$ channels expressed in Xenopus oocytes were similar to the previously reported characteristics of low-threshold $Ca^{2+}$ channel currents.