• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.207-213
• /
• 2009

Adenylosuccinate lyase (ADSL) deficiency is a disease of purine metabolism which affects patients both biochemicall and behaviorally. An obstacle of this purine nucleotide cycle(PNC) can be caused brain functional disorder and growth disorder. So ADSL deficiency, which is associated with sever mental retardation, autistic features and energy metabolism. This study was performed to identify SNP on ADSL gene in chicken. The nucleotides were observed as T to C ($7724^{th}$ nucleotide), C to T ($7732^{nd}$ nucleotide), G to T ($10108^{th}$ nucleotide), A to T ($10356^{th}$ nucleotide), G to A($10375^{th}$ nucleotide), A to C ($10402^{nd}$ nucleotide), A to T ($12716^{th}$ nucleotide), T to A ($12717^{th}$ nucleotide), C to T ($15491^{st}$ nucleotide), C to T ($15542^{nd}$ nucleotide) and C to T ($15550^{th}$ nucleotide). The nucleotide substitutions at $15542^{nd}$ and $15550^{th}$ (GeneBank accession no. AY665559) were found as missense mutation (alanine$\rightarrow$valine, proline$\rightarrow$serine, respectively). This study will be useful for farther researches for identifying association between these SNPs and energy metabolism in chicken. The C15550T SNP showed three genotypes, CC, CT, TT by digestion with the genotype TT had significantly faster the first lay day (150.0) than CT (162.0, P<0.05) and genotype TT (150.0, P<0.05) had significantly higher the egg production rate than CT (172.4, P<0.05). According to result of this study, a C15550T was found to have a significantly effect first lay day and mean egg production. It will be possible to use SNP marker on selecting chicken to improve important economic traits, which is the first lay day and mean egg production.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.191-203
• /
• 2016

This purpose of this study is to academically define what "luxury products" mean, and to clarify the cognitive structural relationship between corporate attributes and "luxuriousness" in relation to the determinant of luxuriousness that eventually affects the purchase intention of consumers. This study is also written under the theory that luxuriousness leads to benefits such as functional benefit, experiential benefit, symbolic benefit, and exclusive benefit; which all provide core values to consumers and serve as effect factors that influence the psychological satisfaction of consumers. The commonly discussed measure of the determinant of luxuriousness has often failed to adequately describe the reasons to why the consumers prefer luxury products. This study also aims to suggest a new path in how and what the consumers perceive as luxury products, and to conceptualize what luxuriousness means in the marketing perspectives on the background of a previous theory. The part of corporate attributes are divided in the following sections: corporate ability(CA) and corporate reputation(CR). The part of the determinant of luxuriousness is divided in sections of superiority, scarcity, differentiation, and traditionality. Therefore, this study used the theoretical concept used in such common measures as well as 282 examples to empirically analyze the relationship between corporate attributes and luxuriousness of luxury products, and how such affect the purchase intentions of consumers. The survey used to aid this study targeted luxury product consumers regarding "B" brand of automobiles. Using the analysis through a structural equation model, the study draws a conclusion that in a relationship between corporate attributes and luxuriousness, corporate ability(CA) of corporate attributes affects the facts of differentiation and traditionality in a significant way, and corporate reputation(CR) of corporate attributes affects the factors of superiority and scarcity in a significant way. Additionally, the superiority and scarcity of luxuriousness positive significantly affects purchase intention, and differentiation and traditionality of luxuriousness affects purchase intention in a negative significant way. The structural concept of luxury and luxuriousness suggested in the study will provide the theoretical basis for building a new case study, and the determinants of luxuriousness in the marketing perspective will be a practical help for checking the consumers' psychological reasons for purchase.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.42-49
• /
• 2004

Purpose : The quantization noise in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems is analyzed. The signal-to-quantization noise ratio (SQNR) in the reconstructed image is derived from the level of quantization in the signal in spatial frequency domain. Based on the derived formula, the SQNRs in various main magnetic fields with different receiver systems are evaluated. From the evaluation, the quantization noise could be a major noise source determining overall system signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in high field MRI system. A few methods to reduce the quantization noise are suggested. Materials and methods : In Fourier imaging methods, spin density distribution is encoded by phase and frequency encoding gradients in such a way that it becomes a distribution in the spatial frequency domain. Thus the quantization noise in the spatial frequency domain is expressed in terms of the SQNR in the reconstructed image. The validity of the derived formula is confirmed by experiments and computer simulation. Results : Using the derived formula, the SQNRs in various main magnetic fields with various receiver systems are evaluated. Since the quantization noise is proportional to the signal amplitude, yet it cannot be reduced by simple signal averaging, it could be a serious problem in high field imaging. In many receiver systems employing analog-to-digital converters (ADC) of 16 bits/sample, the quantization noise could be a major noise source limiting overall system SNR, especially in a high field imaging. Conclusion : The field strength of MRI system keeps going higher for functional imaging and spectroscopy. In high field MRI system, signal amplitude becomes larger with more susceptibility effect and wider spectral separation. Since the quantization noise is proportional to the signal amplitude, if the conversion bits of the ADCs in the receiver system are not large enough, the increase of signal amplitude may not be fully utilized for the SNR enhancement due to the increase of the quantization noise. Evaluation of the SQNR for various systems using the formula shows that the quantization noise could be a major noise source limiting overall system SNR, especially in three dimensional imaging in a high field imaging. Oversampling and off-center sampling would be an alternative solution to reduce the quantization noise without replacement of the receiver system.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.452-460
• /
• 2016

This study was designed to develop a functional pharma-food using Salicornia europaea (SE). Tiny seeds from the mature SE were collected, and their biological activities were evaluated. The extraction yield of the seed in hot water was found to be 29.6% and the hot water extract (HWE) contained 25.7 mg/g total polyphenol (TP) and 11.5 mg/g total flavonoid (TF), which are similar to those contained in leaf and stem of SE. Among the subsequent organic solvent fractions, the ethylacetate (EA) fraction exhibited the highest content of TP (158.3 mg/g), TF (136.2 mg/g), and total sugar (228.3 mg/g). The EA fraction exhibited broad-range antibacterial activities against gram-positive bacteria, and the butanol fraction exhibited growth inhibitory effect against only Staphylococcus epidermidis. An antioxidation activity assay of the HWE and its fractions showed the EA fraction to have the highest radical scavenging activity with $RC_{50}$ values of 57.0, 29.0, and $28.9{\mu}g/ml$ against DPPH anion, ABTS cation, and nitrite, respectively. The $RC_{50}$ values of vitamin C against DPPH anion, ABTS cation, and nitrite were 10.7, 4.0, and $18.0{\mu}g/ml$, respectively, indicating that the EA fraction of SE has potent antioxidant compounds. In an anticoagulation assay, the EA fraction exhibited a 15-fold extended thrombin time at 5 mg/ml and activated partial thromboplastin time at 7 mg/ml, which are comparable to the activities of aspirin. The HWE and its fractions had no hemolysis activities against human RBCs at up to 1 mg/ml. These results suggest that the EA fraction from SE has a great potential as a new antibacterial and anticoagulation agent.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.4
• /
• pp.287-296
• /
• 2010

This study was conducted to determine effects of fermented brown seaweed waste (FBSW) on milk production, composition and physiological responses as functional feed for 60 days in Holstein dairy cows. A total of 24 Holstein dairy cows (average age 49.33 months, average lactation days 175, Reproduction 2.0) were randomly allocated into control(basal diet), 1% FBSW (180g in basal diet) and 2% FBSW (360g in basal diet) groups with 8 replications for 60 days. Daily milk yield and composition (fat, protein, SNF, MUN) were not affected by FBSW supplementation, but Ca level in milk was significantly increased 4.29 mg/dl and 2.91 mg/dl in 1% and 2% groups compared to control group (p<0.05) at the end of the experiment, respectively. The somatic cell count (SCC) in milk was not significant. The plasma $T_4$ level (concentration) were increased in 1% and 2% FBSW compared to control group at the end of the experiment (p<0.05), but between triiodothyronine ($T_3$) and thyroxin ($T_4$) levels were not significant. Concentrations of plasma glucose in control, 1% FBSW and 2% FBSW groups were 64. 37mg/dl, 66.15mg/dl and 73.02 mg/dl and plasma NEFA level was 0.30~0.32 mEq/dl. Concentrations of BUN tended to be higher for FBSW group than control group. Although WBC, RBC, Hb, Hct, T-B, ALP, and GPT levels were not affected by FBSW supplementation, GOT level was significantly decreased in cows fed 1% FBSE diet compared to control group (P<0.05). Therefore we strongly suggest that the 1% FBSW supplementation in basal diet increases the milk yield and Ca level in Holstein dairy cows.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.311-329
• /
• 1986

The experimental exposure of animals to sources of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) which emit their energy primarily in the UVB region (280-320nm) is known to result in a number of well-described changes in the recipient's immune competence. Two such changes include a depressed capacity to effectively respond immunologically to transplants of syngeneic UVR tumors and a markedly reduced responsiveness to known inducers of delayedtype (DTH) and contact hypersensitivity (CH) reactions. The results of experiments that were designed to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for UVR-induced immunomodulation have implicated: 1) an altered pattern of lymphocyte recirculation, 2) suppressor T cells(Ts), 3) deviations in systemic antigen presenting cell (APC) potential. 4) changes in the production of interleukin-1-like molecules, and 5) the functional inactivation of epidermal Langerhans cells in this process. The exposure of skin to UVR, therefore, causes a number of both local and systemic alterations to the normal host immune system. In spite of this seeming complexity and diversity of responses, our recent studies have established that each of the UVR-mediated changes is probably of equal importance to creating the UVR-induced immunocompromised state. Normal animals were exposed to low dose UVR radiation on their dorsal surfaces under conditions where a $3.0\;cm^2$ area of skin was physically protected from the light energy. Contact sensitization of these animals with DNFB, to either the irradiated or protected back skin, resulted in markedly reduced CH responses. This was observed in spite of a normal responsiveness following the skin sensitization to ventral surfaces of the UVR-exposed animals. Systemic treatment of the low dose UVR recipients with the drug indomethacin (1-3 micrograms/day) during the UVR exposures resulted in a complete reversal of the depressions observed following DNFB sensitization to "protected" dorsal skin while the altered responsiveness found in the group exposed to the skin reactive chemical through directly UVR-exposed sites was maintained. These studies implicate the importance of EC as effective APC in the skin and also suggest that some of the systemic influences caused by UVR exposure involve the production of prostaglandins. This concept was further supported by finding that indomethacin treatment was also capable of totally reversing the systemic depressions in CH responsiveness caused by high dose UVR exposure (30K joules/$m^2$) of mice. Attempts to analyze the cellular mechanisms responsible established that the spleens of all animals which demonstrated altered CH responses, regardless of whether sensitization was through a normal or an irradiated skin site, contained suppressor cells. Interestingly, we also found normal levels of T effector cells in the peripheral lymph nodes of the UVR-exposed mice that were contact sensitized through normal skin. No effector cells were found when skin sensitization took place through irradiated skin sites. In spite of such an apparent paradox, insight into the probable mechanisms responsible for these observations was provided by establishing that UVR exposure of skin results in a striking and dose-dependent blockade of the efferent lymphatic vessels in all peripheral lymph nodes. Therefore, the afferent phases of immune responses can apparently take place normally in UVR exposed animals when antigen is applied to normal skin. The final effector responses, however, appear to be inhibited in the UVR-exposed animals by an apparent block of effector cell mobility. This contrasts with findings in the normal animals. Following contact sensitization, normal animals were also found to simultaneously contain both antigen specific suppressor T cells and lymph node effector cells. However, these normal animals were fully capable of mobilizing their effector cells into the systemic circulation, thereby allowing a localization of these cells to peripheral sites of antigen challenge. Our results suggest that UVR is probably not a significant inducer of suppressor T-cell activity to topically applied antigens. Rather, UVR exposure appears to modify the normal relationship which exists between effector and regulatory immune responses in vivo. It does so by either causing a direct reduction in the skin's APC function, a situation which results in an absence of effector cell generation to antigens applied to UVR-exposed skin sites, inhibiting the capacity of effector cells to gain access to skin sites of antigen challenge or by sequestering the lymphocytes with effector cell potential into the draining peripheral lymph nodes. Each of these situations result in a similar effect on the UVR-exposed host, that being a reduced capacity to elicit a CH response. We hypothesize that altered DTH responses, altered alloresponses, and altered graft-versus-host responses, all of which have been observed in UVR exposed animals, may result from similar mechanisms.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.405-428
• /
• 1990

Language has a social function to communicate information. Linguists have gradually paid their attention to the function of language since the nineteen sixties, especially to the relationship of form, meaning and the function. The relationship could be more clearly grasped through disciyrse-based analysis than through sentence-based analysis. Many researches were centered on the discourse functional notion of topic. In the early 1970's the subject was defined as the grammatiocalized topic the topic as a discrete single constituent of the clause. In the late 1970's several lingusts including Givon suggerted that the topic was not an atomic, disctete entity, and that the clause could have more than one topic. The purpose of the present study is, following Givon, to study grammatical coding devices of topic and to measure the relative topic continuity/discontinuity of participant argu, ents in Korean narratives. By so doing, I would like to shed some light on effective ways of communicating information. The grammatical coding devices analyzed are the following eight structures: zero-anaphora, personal pronous, demonstrative pronouns, names, noun phrases following demonstratives, noun phrases following possessives, definite noun phrases and indefinite referentials. The narrative studied for the count was taken from the KoreanCIA chief's Testiomny:Revolution and Idol by Hyung Wook Kim. It was chosen because it was assumed that Kim's purpose in the novel was to tell a true story, which would not distort the natural use of language for literary effect. The measures taken in the analysis wre those of 'lookback', 'persistence', ambiguity'. The first of these, 'lookback', is a measure of the size of gap between the previous occurrence of a referent and its current occurence in the clause. The meausure of persistence, which is a measure of the speaker's topocal intent, reflects the topic's importance in the discourse. The third measure is a measure of ambiguity. This is necessary for assessing the disruptive effects that other topics within five previous clauses may have on topic identification. The more other topics are present within five previous clauses, the more difficult is the task of correct identification of a topic. The results of the present study show that the humanness of entities is the most powerful factior in topic continutiy in narrative discourse. The semantic roles of human arguments in narrative discourse tend to be agents or experiences. Since agents and experiences have high topicality in discourse, human entities clearly become clausal or discoursal topics. The results also show that the grammatical devices signal varying degrees of topic continuity discontinuity in continuous discourse. The more continuous a topic argument is, the less it is coded. For example, personal pronouns have the most continutiy and indefinite referentials have the least continutiy. The study strongly shows that topic continuity discontinutiy is controlled not only by grammatical devices available in the language but by socio-cultural factors and writer's intentions.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.50 no.9
• /
• pp.882-890
• /
• 2007

Purpose : Preterm very low birth weight infant have high rate of adverse neurodevelopmental sequale. Recently, there have been lots of reports that human umbilical cord blood transplantation ameliorates functional deficits in animal models as hypoxic ischemic injury. This pilot study was undertaken to determine the clinical efficacy and safety of autologous umbilical cord blood cell transplantation for preventing neurodevelopmental sequale in perterm VLBW. Methods : Subjects were 26 preterm infants whose birth weight are less than 1,500 g and delivered under the intrauterine period 34 weeks. Autologous umbilical mononuclear cells (about $5.87{\times}10^7/kg$) were injected to neonate via the umbilical vein on the postnatal 24-48 hour. The therapeutic efficacy was assessed by numbers of nucleated RBC, urinary uric acid/creatinine ratio, concentration of neuron specific enolase (NSE), interleukin 6 (IL6), interleukin-$1{\beta}$ ($IL-1{\beta}$), and glial cell derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) in serum and cerebrospinal fluid on day 1 and 7. Results : There were no significant differences in the numbers of the nucleated RBC, urinary uric acid/creatinine ratio, concentration of creatine kinase between the transplanted infants and controls. But the nucleated RBC is more likely to be rapidly discharged in the transplanted group. In the transplanted group, the concentrations of IL6, $IL-1{\beta}$, and GDNF were no significant difference between day 1 and 7, although GDNF seemed to be elevated. Serum NSE concentration was significantly elevated after transplantation, but not in CSF. Conclusion : It is suggested that autologous umbilical cord blood transplantation in preterm very low birth weight infant is safe to apply clinical practice. Long term follow up study should be needed to evaluate the potential therapeutic effect of umbilical cord blood transplantation for neuroprotection.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.59-68
• /
• 2016

The application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to assess the environmental impact of rapeseed cultivation in winter fallow after harvesting rice was investigated and compared with barley cultivation in crop rotation system. Data for input materials were collected and analyzed by 1 ton rapeseed and barley as functional unit. For the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) the Eco-indicator 95 method has been chosen because this is well documented and regularly applied impact method. From the comparison of impact categories such as greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, acidification, heavy metals, carcinogens, summer smog, and energy resources for 1 ton of final product, emission potential from rapeseed was higher than that from barley. The range from 65 to 96% of these potential came from chemical fertilizer. On the other hand, eutrophication potential from barley was higher than that from rapeseed, mainly came from utilizing the chemical fertilizer. During the cultivation of barley and rape, environmental burden by heavy metals was evaluated by 0.5 Pt, larger than points from other impact categories. The sum of points from all impact categories in barley and rapeseed was calculated to be 0.78 Pt and 0.82 Pt, respectively. From the sensitivity analysis for barley and rapeseed, scenario 1 (crop responses to fertilization level) showed the environmental burden was continuously increased with the amount of fertilization in barley cultivation, while it was not increased only at the optimum crop responses to fertilization in rapeseed (R3). With these results, rapeseed cultivation in winter fallow paddy contributed to the amounts of environmental burden much more than barley cultivation. It is, however, highly determined that environmental weighted point resulted from evaluating both cultivation was not significantly different.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.5
• /
• pp.369-373
• /
• 2012

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) maintains energy homeostasis in skeletal muscle. Nonetheless, its functional role on protein synthesis with different nutrient availability has not been elucidated. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of AMPK activity on protein content in C2C12 myotubes incubated with low (5 mM; LG) or high (25 mM; HG) glucose media. LG stimulated (p<0.05) AMPK and acetyl CoA carboxylase (ACC) activity compare to those in HG group. Total protein content was higher in myotubes cultured with HG than in those cultured with LG and further increased by AICAR (5-amino-1-${\beta}$-D-ribofuranosyl-imidazole-4-carboxamide). Myotubes cultured with HG showed 7.5% lower UbFL (Ubiquitin Firefly Luciferase)-to-SV40 (Simian virus40) ratio compared to those in LG. Glucose level did not change the phosphorylation level of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). Interestingly, administration of AICAR significantly increased phosphorylation level of mTOR in myotubes cultured with LG but not in those with HG. Overall, this data indicate that AMPK activity and protein turnover are finely regulated in response to different glucose concentration.