• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.143-147
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• 2024

This study aimed to determine the egg-hatching period of boreal digging frogs, Kaloula borealis, and investigate whether the incubation temperature affects the hatching period. In this study, the egg hatching was recorded based on the appearance of the tadpole. The results of this study showed that all the eggs hatched within 48 hours after spawning, with 28.1% (±10.8, n=52) hatching within 24 hours and 99.9% (±0.23, n=49) within 48 hours after spawning. The mean hatching rate of tadpoles showed significant differences depending on the difference in water temperature. The mean hatching rate between 15 and 24 hours after spawning was higher at a water temperature of 21.1 (±0.2) ℃ than at 24.1 (±0.2) ℃. The results suggest rapid hatching occurs at relatively low water temperatures because the spawning habits that spawn eggs in temporary ponds or puddles in the rainy season require rapid hatching before the puddles dry out. The results of this study are helpful for understanding the most suitable temperature conditions for the incubation of eggs of the endangered species, boreal digging frog.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.393-398
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• 2023

We identified mastitis-causing pathogens using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) in an organic dairy farm and evaluated the effects of antimicrobial restriction on antimicrobial susceptibility. A total of 43 Holstein cows without any clinical sign of mastitis were used in this study, and 172 quarter milk samples were cultured on blood agar plates for 24 hours at 37℃. Subsequently, bacterial species were identified and antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed. The subclinical mastitis infection rates in the cows and quarters were 58.1% (25/43) and 25.6% (44/172), respectively. In the species identification, Staphylococcus aureus (40.9%) was the most prominent isolate, followed by S. chromogenes (22.7%), S. epidermis (18.2%), S. simulans (11.4%), S. haemolyticus (2.3%), S. muscae (2.3%), and S. xylosus (2.3%). In the antimicrobial susceptibility test, all isolates were 100% susceptible to 24 of 28 antibiotics, except for benzylpenicillin, cefalotin, cefpodoxime, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. The resistance rates of S. aureus, S. chromogenes, and S. muscae isolates to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole were 27.8%, 10%, and 100%, respectively, and the resistance rates of S. epidermis and S. xylosus to benzylpenicillin were 50% and 100%, respectively. S. chromogenes, S. epidermis, S. simulans, S. haemolyticus, and S. xylosus were resistant to cefalotin and cefpodoxime. In conclusion, restrictions on antimicrobial use for organic dairy farm certification have resulted in a high Staphylococcus spp. infection rate. Therefore, our study indicates the importance of mastitis management strategies implemented by farmers together with veterinary practitioners, even if mastitis does not appear clinically in organic dairy farms.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.381-397
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• 2024

This study investigates the negative perceptions (veganphobia) held by consumers toward vegan diets and fashion and aims to foster a genuine acceptance of ethical veganism in consumption. The textual data web-crawled Korean online posts, including news articles, blogs, forums, and tweets, containing keywords such as "contradiction," "dilemma," "conflict," "issues," "vegan food" and "vegan fashion" from 2013 to 2021. Data analysis was conducted through text mining, network analysis, and clustering analysis using Python and NodeXL programs. The analysis revealed distinct negative perceptions regarding vegan food. Key issues included the perception of hypocrisy among vegetarians, associations with specific political leanings, conflicts between environmental and animal rights, and contradictions between views on companion animals and livestock. Regarding the vegan fashion industry, the eco-friendliness of material selection and design processes were seen as the pivotal factors shaping negative attitudes. Furthermore, the study identified a shared negative perception regarding vegan food and vegan fashion. This negativity was characterized by confusion and conflicts between animal and environmental rights, biased perceptions linked to specific political affiliations, perceived self-righteousness among vegetarians, and general discomfort toward them. These factors collectively contributed to a broader negative perception of vegan consumption. In conclusion, this study is significant in understanding the complex perceptions and attitudes that con- sumers hold toward vegan food and fashion. The insights gained from this research can aid in the design of more effective campaign strategies aimed at promoting vegan consumerism, ultimately contributing to a more widespread acceptance of ethical veganism in society.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.379-386
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• 2024

Basophils and mast cells are specialized effector cells in allergic reactions. Haliotis discus hannai (abalone), is valuable seafood. Abalone male viscera, which has a brownish color and has not been previously reported to show anti-allergic activities, was extracted with acetone. Six different acetone/hexane fractions (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 100%) were obtained using a silica column via β-hexosaminidase release inhibitory activity-guided selection in phorbol myristate acetate and a calcium ionophore, A23187 (PMACI)-induced human basophils, KU812F cells. The 40% acetone/hexane fraction (A40) exhibited the strongest inhibition of PMACI-induced-β-hexosaminidase release. This fraction dose-dependently inhibited reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and calcium mobilization without cytotoxicity. Western blot analysis revealed that A40 down-regulated PMACI-induced MAPK (ERK 1/2, p-38, and JNK) phosphorylation, and the NF-κB translocation from the cytosol to membrane. Moreover, A40 inhibited PMACI-induced interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 production. Anti-allergic activities of A40 were confirmed based on inhibitory effects on IL-4 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) production in compound (com) 48/80-induced rat basophilic leukemia (RBL)-2H3 cells. A40 inhibited β-hexosaminidase release and cytokine production such as IL-4 and TNF-α produced by com 48/80-stimulated RBL-2H3 cells. Furthermore, it's fraction attenuated the IgE/DNP-induced passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) reaction in the ears of BALB/c mice. Our results suggest that abalone contains the active fraction, A40 is a potent therapeutic and functional material to treat allergic diseases.

• Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.146-160
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• 2024

Background and Purpose: The emotions of people at various stages of dementia need to be effectively utilized for prevention, early intervention, and care planning. With technology available for understanding and addressing the emotional needs of people, this study aims to develop speech emotion recognition (SER) technology to classify emotions for people at high risk of dementia. Methods: Speech samples from people at high risk of dementia were categorized into distinct emotions via human auditory assessment, the outcomes of which were annotated for guided deep-learning method. The architecture incorporated convolutional neural network, long short-term memory, attention layers, and Wav2Vec2, a novel feature extractor to develop automated speech-emotion recognition. Results: Twenty-seven kinds of Emotions were found in the speech of the participants. These emotions were grouped into 6 detailed emotions: happiness, interest, sadness, frustration, anger, and neutrality, and further into 3 basic emotions: positive, negative, and neutral. To improve algorithmic performance, multiple learning approaches were applied using different data sources-voice and text-and varying the number of emotions. Ultimately, a 2-stage algorithm-initial text-based classification followed by voice-based analysis-achieved the highest accuracy, reaching 70%. Conclusions: The diverse emotions identified in this study were attributed to the characteristics of the participants and the method of data collection. The speech of people at high risk of dementia to companion robots also explains the relatively low performance of the SER algorithm. Accordingly, this study suggests the systematic and comprehensive construction of a dataset from people with dementia.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.95-104
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• 2024

Background: In healthy dentin conditions, odontoblasts have an important role such as protection from invasion of pathogens. In mammalian teeth, progenitors such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can migrate and differentiate into odontoblast-like cells, leading to the formation of reparative dentin. For differentiation using stem cells, it is crucial to provide conditions similar to the complex and intricate in vivo environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential of differentiation into odonto/osteoblasts, and compare co-culture with/without epithelial cells. Methods: MSCs and epithelial cells were successfully isolated from dental tissues. We investigated the influences of epithelial cells on the differentiation process of dental pulp stem cells into odonto/osteoblasts using co-culture systems. The differentiation potential with/without epithelial cells was analyzed for the expression of specific markers and calcium contents. Results: Differentiated odonto/osteoblast derived from dental pulp tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells with/without epithelial cells were evaluated by qRT-PCR, immunostaining, calcium content, and ALP staining. The expression of odonto/osteoblast-specific markers, calcium content, and ALP staining intensity were significantly increased in differentiated cells. Moreover, the odonto/osteogenic differentiation capacity with epithelial cells co-culture was significantly higher than without epithelial cells co-culture. Conclusions: These results suggest that odonto/osteogenic differentiation co-cultured with epithelial cells has a more efficient application.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.67.1-67.8
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• 2024

Importance: Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae are emerging as a global public health risk. Therefore, assessing the prevalence of carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli (CRE) in both humans and animals is important. Objective: We aimed to ascertain the occurrence and characteristics of CRE isolated from companion animals, dogs and cats. Methods: E. coli strains were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility using the broth microdilution technique. Antimicrobial resistance genes were detected by polymerase chain reaction and sequencing analysis. The molecular characteristics of CRE were determined using multi-locus sequence typing, replicon typing, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Results: In total, 13 CRE isolates (0.13%) were identified from dogs possessing bla_NDM-5 along with β-lactamase genes, mostly blaCMY-2 (92.2%) and blaTEM-1 (53.8%). The commonly observed mutations were S83L and D87N in gyrA, S80I in parC, and S458A in parE. CRE carried non-beta-lactam resistance genes, with the majority being tet(B) (100%), sul (84.6%), and aac(3)-II (53.8%). Nine different PFGE patterns (P1-P9), IncX3-type plasmids (69.2%), and ST410 (84.6%) were predominantly detected. Conclusions and Relevance: This investigation provides significant insight into the prevalence and molecular characteristics of bla_NDM-5-carrying E. coli in dogs. The co-existence of bla_NDM-5 and other antimicrobial resistance genes in E. coli potentially poses severe health hazards to humans.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.3-8
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• 1977

A bark comprises about 10 to 20 percents of a typical log by volume, and is generally considered as an unwanted residue rather than a potentially valuable resource. As the world has been confronted with decreasing forest resources, natural resources pressure dictate that a bark should be a raw material instead of a waste. The utilization of the largely wasted bark of genus Quercus grown in Korea can be enhanced by learning its anatomical structure and properties. In this paper, bark characteristics of Quercus grown in Korea are described. In bark anatomy, general features such as color of rhytidome, exfoliating form, color of periderm, arrangement of periderm, and thickness of the inner and outer hark. etc., arc discussed. Studies on the microscopic structure include sieve tube, companion cell, parenchyma, pholem fiber, ray, periderm(phelloderm, phelloogen, phellem), sclereid, and crystal, etc. The results may be summarized as follows: 1. In general characteristics of rhytidomes, exfoliating is not easy and sclereids are distint to the naked eye. Inner bark is thicker than that of outer bark except in case of Q. variabilis. 2. It is not clear to distinguish between phelloderm and phellogen in Quercus bark. The phellem is developed conspicuously in Q. variabilis but that of Q. accutissima is composed of thinwalled phellem and thickwalled stone cell. 3. Quercus Bark has sieve tube, companion cell, phloem fiber and sclereid. Sclereids of Quercus bark are the most distinguished characteristics comparing with pinus and populus. The volume percent of sclereids are higher than that of fiber. 4. Rays are 1~3 seriate, and multiseriate ranging with from 15 to 20. 5. Parenchyma cell contains two types, polygonal and druses crystal.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.38 no.9
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• pp.1179-1186
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• 2009

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of saengmaec-san on the level of blood glucose and serum components in streptozocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. The experimental groups were divided into normal group (normal), diabetic control group (Dia-control), 10% saengmaec-san (white ginseng) group (DA), 10% saengmaec-san (fermented white ginseng) group (DB), 10% saengmaec-san (fermented red ginseng) group (DC), 5% saengmaec-san (extruded and fermented white ginseng) group (DDL), 10% saengmaec-san (extruded and fermented white ginseng) group (DDH). The body weight after induction of diabetes was 85.4% in the Dia-control group compared with the normal group. But in the DA group, the body weight showed clear sign of recovery almost normal level after administration of saengmaec-san for two weeks. The food efficiency ratios (FER) were 5.94% in the normal group. But it was significantly decreased in the Dia-control group (0.58%). All the treatment groups showed increase of FER compared with the Dia-control group. The level of blood glucose was significantly increased in the STZ-induced diabetes groups but it was decreased in all the treatment groups after administration for 2 weeks. Serum creatinine level were significantly higher in the STZ-induced diabetes groups and after administration of saengmaeg-san for 2 weeks while the level of serum creatinine was decreased 33.3% in the DB group. After administration of saengmaec-san for two weeks, serum total cholesterol level were significantly lower in all treatment groups than the first day of the total cholesterol level. The level of serum triglyceride was increased in all the treatment groups compared with the first day of triglyceride level. The level of serum HDL-cholesterol, after STZ-induced diabetes, was decreased in all treatment groups but particularly in the DDL and DDH groups increased HDL-cholesterol level compared with the first day of the saengmaec-san administration. Compared with the beginning of experiment, Atherogenic index (AI) were significantly decreased in all treatment groups than the Dia-control group and showed clear sign of recovery almost normal level. These results suggested that the saengmaec-san could be developed as an antidiabetic agent.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 2022

This study was conducted to analyze the genetic polymorphisms of dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) in horse breeds and its association with substrate characteristics in Jeju crossbreds (Jeju Horse × Thoroughbred). Polymorphisms in DRD4 are candidate genes associated with temperament in various mammals, including humans. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) G292A in the exon 3 region of the horse DRD4 has a reported association with curiosity and vigilance in thoroughbreds. Sanger sequencing was used to identify polymorphisms of the mutations in DRD4 in three horse breeds. The SNP frequency in Jeju horses was significantly different from the frequency in other breeds. Character evaluation, conducted in the Jeju crossbreds and scored using a temperament test and contact test, revealed a high correlation between each test. Comparison of the polymorphism in the DRD4 of horses and the results of the character evaluation revealed lower scores for all temperaments in horses carrying allele A. Comparison of the SNP of G292A and blood dopamine levels in Jeju crossbreds showed 2.87 times higher levels for the GA type than for the GG type. This study identified an association between DRD4 polymorphism and various test methods for evaluating horse temperament and levels of neurotransmitters. Further research could validate the use of this gene as a genetic marker for character evaluation.