• Nutrition Research and Practice
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.19-32
• /
• 2024

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Atherosclerosis is associated with increased inflammation in the visceral adipose tissue (VAT). Vitamin D has been reported to modulate the inflammatory responses of stromal vascular cells (SVCs) and adipocytes in adipose tissue, but the role of vitamin D in atherosclerosis biology is unclear. This study examined the effects of in vitro 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ (1,25[OH]₂D₃) treatment on the inflammatory responses of SVCs and adipocytes from atherosclerotic mice. MATERIALS/METHODS: C57BL/6J (B6) mice were divided randomly into 2 groups and fed a 10% kcal fat control diet (control group, CON) or 41% kcal fat, 0.21% cholesterol (high fat + cholesterol, HFC) diet (obese group, OB), and B6.129S7-Ldlr^tm1Her/J (Ldlr^-/-) mice were fed a HFC diet (obese with atherosclerosis group, OBA) for 16 weeks. SVCs and adipocytes isolated from VAT were pre-incubated with 1,25(OH)₂D₃ for 24 h and stimulated with lipopolysaccarides for the next 24 h. Proinflammatory cytokine production by adipocytes and SVCs, the immune cell population in SVCs, and the expression of the genes involved in the inflammatory signaling pathway in SVCs were determined. RESULTS: The numbers of total macrophages and SVCs per mouse were higher in OB and OBA groups than the CON group. The in vitro 1,25(OH)₂D₃ treatment significantly reduced macrophages/SVCs (%) in the OBA group. Consistent with this change, the production of interleukin-6 and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) by SVCs from the OBA group was decreased by 1,25(OH)₂D₃ treatment. The 1,25(OH)₂D₃ treatment significantly reduced the toll-like receptor 4 and dual-specificity protein phosphatase 1 (also known as mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 1) mRNA levels in SVCs and MCP-1 production by adipocytes from all 3 groups. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that vitamin D can attribute to the inhibition of the inflammatory response in VAT from atherosclerotic mice by reducing proinflammatory cytokine production.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.394-402
• /
• 2015

This study was carried out to investigate the bat (Chiroptera) fauna in Jeju Island. Bat distribution was monitored in lava tubes, sea caves, cave encampments and eco-corridors from July, 2006 to June, 2015. Bat specimens were also confirmed at the museums in Jeju Island. From the present study, we found 8 species of 6 genera belong to 3 families, which was different from the records had previously described in Jeju Island since 1928. Five species (Rhinolophus ferrumequium, Myotis bombinus, M. formosus, M. macrodactylus and Miniopterus schreibersi) were commonly found to live in lava tubes and cave enforcements. But only R. ferrumequium was found in a sea cave and five species including Murina leucogaster and Pipistrellus abramus were found in eco-corridors. We have also found seven species including Tadarida insignis in the specimens stored in local museums. From the results of this study, we actually could not found the remaining seven species (Hypsugo savii, Miniopterus fuscus, Myotis mystacinus, Myotis ikonnikovi, Myotis branditii, Myotis petax and Pipistrellus endoi). Interestingly, Myotis formosus which is known as one of endangered species and Myotis bombinus which is very rare in Korean Peninsula were currently found in Jeju Island. In addition, Tube-nosed bat (Murina leucogaster) that was discovered for the first time through this study. A variety of habitats for Chiroptera were identified, but the information is still not sufficient to understand. These results will be useful to provide a fundamental data in preserving the diversity of bats and in ecological study in Jeju Island.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.30 no.10
• /
• pp.905-911
• /
• 2020

The adjuvant effect of PAMAM dendrimer G4 (PAMAM) on the induction of humoral and cellular immune responses against keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) was examined. Mice were immunized subcutaneously twice at two-week intervals with KLH, with or without PAMAM dendrimer (100 ㎍/mouse), and the mice immunized with KLH+PAMAM showed significantly higher antibody titers against KLH than those immunized with KLH alone. The assay for determining the isotypes of the antibodies showed that PAMAM augmented the KLH-specific antibody titers of IgG1, IgG2a, IgG2b, IgG3, and IgM. In addition, mice immunized twice with KLH+PAMAM followed by a subcutaneous injection of KLH (20 ㎍/site) 7 weeks after the primary immunization exhibited a higher delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reaction than those treated with KLH alone. In an in vitro analysis of T lymphocyte proliferation in response to KLH in week 8, the splenocytes of mice treated with KLH+PAMAM showed significantly higher proliferating activity than those treated with KLH alone, and the culture supernatants of cell cultures from mice immunized with added PAMAM dendrimer showed higher levels of KLH-specific cytokine (IL-4 and IFN-r) production. These results suggest that PAMAM dendrimer G4 possesses a potent immune-adjuvant activity for enhancing both humoral and cell-mediated immunity specific to foreign antigens.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 2007

The use of information on natural resources is indispensable to most agricultural activities to avoid disasters, to improve input efficiency, and to increase lam income. Most information is prepared and managed at a spatial scale called the "Hydrologic Unit" (HU), which means watershed or small river basin, because virtually every environmental problem can be handled best within a single HU. South Korea consists of 840 such watersheds and, while other watershed-specific information is routinely managed by government organizations, there are none responsible for agricultural weather and climate. A joint research team of Kyung Hee University and the Agriculture, forestry and Fisheries Information Service has begun a 4-year project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and forestry to establish a watershed-specific agricultural weather information service based on "high definition" digital climate maps (HD-DCMs) utilizing the state of the art geospatial climatological technology. For example, a daily minimum temperature model simulating the thermodynamic nature of cold air with the aid of raster GIS and microwave temperature profiling will quantify effects of cold air drainage on local temperature. By using these techniques and 30-year (1971-2000) synoptic observations, gridded climate data including temperature, solar irradiance, and precipitation will be prepared for each watershed at a 30m spacing. Together with the climatological normals, there will be 3-hourly near-real time meterological mapping using the Korea Meteorological Administration's digital forecasting products which are prepared at a 5 km by 5 km resolution. Resulting HD-DCM database and operational technology will be transferred to local governments, and they will be responsible for routine operations and applications in their region. This paper describes the project in detail and demonstrates some of the interim results.

• Korean Journal of Dental Materials
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.151-161
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of shade and thickness of resin-nanoceramic CAD-CAM block (RNB) on the microhardness of dual-cured resin cement, as well as to measure the number of photons transmitted through RNBs of different thicknesses and colors. One dual-cured resin cement was used to prepare resin cement specimens. Resin cement specimens were light-cured for 40 seconds through 3 shades (A1, A2, A3 in HT (high translucency) and LT (low translucency) respectively) and four thicknesses (1, 2, 3, 4 mm) of RNB specimens. Vickers microhardness measurements of resin cement specimens were performed using a Vickers hardness tester. The light transmission of RNB specimens was measured using a spectrometer (SpectroPro-500, Acton Research, Acton, MA, U.S.A.), and the translucency parameter was calculated using the CIEL*a*b* system. Data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey's test. There was a significant decrease of microhardness of resin cement specimen with an overlay of 4 mm of RNB thickness and A3 shade in comparison to A1 and 1 mm, respectively (p<0.05). The translucency parameter values and light transmission of RNBs tested differed significantly, according to the thicknesses of the specimen (p<0.05). Light transmission is decreased with increase in the thicknesses of RNBs. Shade A1 transmitted more light than darker blocks. A decrease in microhardness of resin cement specimens was observed with increasing thickness and shade (A1 to A3) of RNBs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.920-926
• /
• 2010

Marine alga, Chlorella vulgaris, was extracted by chloroform-methanol (2:1, v/v) solvents for lipid extraction at $35^{\circ}C$ for five hours (HCM-35) and its process was compared with conventional lipid extraction condition such as chloroform-methanol (2:1, v/v) at $65^{\circ}C$ for one hour (CM-65). This low temperature extraction process showed that 80% of total lipid was extracted and its residues contained relatively unchanged amounts of intact proteins and other minerals as well as amino acid profiles. Interestingly enough, the weight fraction of carbohydrate in the residues slightly increased due to less denaturation at low process temperature. The biological activities of the residues such as cytotoxicity and immune cell growth activation were not much changed after being extracted. The sensory evaluation were found to be very favorable for being used as a food additive and/or food supplement. This result could also help to maintain the economic feasibility of utilizing marine resources in food and other relevant industries.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.301-306
• /
• 2004

This study was conducted to develop new markers at the region that was related to QTL affecting intramuscular fat and backfat thickness on chromosome 6q28 - 6q32 in pigs. Dozens of repeated sequences were founded using shotgun sequencing of several BAC clones corresponding to that region, of which five new microstellite markers that identified polymorphism were discovered. The mean number of alleles at each locus observed 2.13(KP0290F2), 4.63(KP0248Cll), 7.38(KP1231C91), 2.75(KPI23IC92) and 6.2S(KP1231C93) in 8 breeds(Landrace, Korean native pig, Duroc, Yorkshire, Berkshire, Wuzhishan pig, Xiang pig, Min pig). The average estimated heterozygosity values at each locus varied from 0.2100(KP0290F2) to 0.8304(KPI23IC91) in all populations. In other hand, the average allele of all loci WlL'I within range of 0.4517(Berkshire) and 0.6957 (Yorkshire). Of these markers, KP0248C11, KP1231C91 and KP1231C93 were identified to have optimal number of alleles, high heterozygosity values and low standard deviation values. Especially, KPI23IC91 and KPI231C93 might be considered as a useful marker for genetic mapping and diversity study.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.200-222
• /
• 1992

The results of recent researches for improvement of seedling stand in direct seeded rice on the dry paddy in Korea were summarized as the following ; a variety to be cultivated should be chosen the characteristics of high percentage germination under low temperature, shorter period of shoot emergence, and better growth of the mesocotyl and shoots. Meanwhile, there was 40% increase in seedling stand at the treatment of removal of the seed awn under using the drill seeder. After seeding the rice seed covered with soil of 3cm depth was better seedling emergence and also there was the hightest seedling emergence at the 70% of moisture content of the soil. In addition, the application of the Release containing GA 10% enabled to increase the seedling stand and furthermore it was effective under deep seeding depth. The optimum seeding date should be seeded around May 10 when mean air temperature is above 12-13$^{\circ}C$ so that may establish more less 70% in seedling stand. Based on an appropriate seedling stand of 150/$m^2$, the optimum seeding rate was 5kg/10a. It was the best in seeding method using drill seeder and the most desirable recommended seeding method was the drill seeder in terms of seedling stand. In order to improve seedling stand water management was more effective in canal irrigation and in drainage at 6hr after irrigation following by the seeding process. On the other hand, for the increase of seedling stand under flooded condition a variety might have characters being better germination at low concentration of dissolved oxygen and vertically deeper growing of the crown root. Also, seedling stand was able to increase with the seed coating of $CaO_2$in the flooded soil. It was possible to be seeded on the early part of May being mean air temperature of avove 10$^{\circ}C$ and the optimum seeding rate was 5kg/10a. For an effective water management water would be flooded up to 3cm depth for 2-3 weeks after seeding. The rice plant grown under the direct seeded cultivation might be not so much strong in lodging resistance compared to that grown under the transplanting and moreover direct seeded rice cultivation under flooded condition would be more weak growth of the rice plant than that on dry paddy. Meanwhile, the lodging would be affected by the seeding rate, the soil depth after seeding. and seeding method even in the same variety. In particular, roots in the lodging pattern of direct seeded rice cultivation under flooded condition were largely distributed on the soil surface so that resulted easily in the lodging. In general, the lodging resistance would be greater as seeding rate and amount of N fertilizer application are lower and soil depth after seeding is higher. Among the introduction of different seeding method the high ridged drill seeding method on dry paddy soil resulted in the lowest in the lodging index and also it was lower in the drill seeding method than in the scattering seeding method under flooded condition. In case of more than 150 seedlings per $m^2$ there was a severe lodging due to high lodging index at the 3rd and 4th internodes. The effective lodging prevention was able to at the treatment of the Inabenfide at 45 days before heading and the Uniconazol at 15 days before heading which caused the shortage by 10-15cm in culm length. Also, fertilizer management using split application of nitrogen would be contributed the reduction of lodging at the rate of 20-30-20-20-10%(basal-5th leaf stage-7th leaf stage-panicle initiation stage-heading stage) on the dry paddy soil.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
• /
• v.22 no.1 s.72
• /
• pp.43-62
• /
• 2004

Conventionally the estimation method of the origin-destination Matrix has been developed by implementing the expansion of sampled data obtained from roadside interview and household travel survey. In the survey process, the bigger the sample size is, the higher the level of limitation, due to taking time for an error test for a cost and a time. Estimating the O-D matrix from observed traffic count data has been applied as methods of over-coming this limitation, and a gradient model is known as one of the most popular techniques. However, in case of the gradient model, although it may be capable of minimizing the error between the observed and estimated traffic volumes, a prior O-D matrix structure cannot maintained exactly. That is to say, unwanted changes may be occurred. For this reason, this study adopts a conjugate gradient algorithm to take into account two factors: estimation of the O-D matrix from the conjugate gradient algorithm while reflecting the prior O-D matrix structure maintained. This development of the O-D matrix estimation model is to minimize the error between observed and estimated traffic volumes. This study validates the model using the simple network, and then applies it to a large scale network. There are several findings through the tests. First, as the consequence of consistency, it is apparent that the upper level of this model plays a key role by the internal relationship with lower level. Secondly, as the respect of estimation precision, the estimation error is lied within the tolerance interval. Furthermore, the structure of the estimated O-D matrix has not changed too much, and even still has conserved some attributes.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
• /
• v.22 no.7 s.78
• /
• pp.155-159
• /
• 2004

Recently, there are many trials about Artificial neural networks : ANNs structure and studying method of researches for forecasting traffic volume. ANNs have a powerful capabilities of recognizing pattern with a flexible non-linear model. However, ANNs have some overfitting problems in dealing with a lot of parameters because of its non-linear problems. This research deals with the application of a variety of model selection criterion for cancellation of the overfitting problems. Especially, this aims at analyzing which the selecting model cancels the overfitting problems and guarantees the transferability from time measure. Results in this study are as follow. First, the model which is selecting in sample does not guarantees the best capabilities of out-of-sample. So to speak, the best model in sample is no relationship with the capabilities of out-of-sample like many existing researches. Second, in stability of model selecting criterion, AIC3, AICC, BIC are available but AIC4 has a large variation comparing with the best model. In time-series analysis and forecasting, we need more quantitable data analysis and another time-series analysis because uncertainty of a model can have an effect on correlation between in-sample and out-of-sample.