In most mammals, metaphase II (MII) oocytes having high maturation promoting factor (MPF) activity have been considered as good oocytes and then used for assisted reproductive technologies including somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Caffeine increases MPF activity in mammalian oocytes by inhibiting p34cdc2 phosphorylation. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of caffeine treatment during in Vitro maturation (IVM) on oocyte maturation and embryonic development after SCNT in pigs. To this end, morphologically good (MGCOCs) and poor oocytes (MPCOCs) based on the thickness of cumulus cell layer were untreated or treated with 2.5 mM caffeine during 22-42, 34-42, or 38-42 h of IVM according to the experimental design. Caffeine treatment for 20 h during 22-42 h of IVM significantly inhibited nuclear maturation compared to no treatment. Blastocyst formation of SCNT embryos was not influenced by the caffeine treatment during 38-42 h of IVM in MGCOCs (41.1-42.1%) but was significantly improved in MPCOCs compared to no treatment (43.4 vs. 30.1%, P<0.05). No significant effects of caffeine treatment was observed in embryo cleavage (78.7-88.0%) and mean cell number in blastocyst (38.7-43.5 cells). The MPF activity of MII oocytes in terms of p34cdc2 kinase activity was not influenced by the caffeine treatment in MGCOCs (160.4 vs. 194.3 pg/ml) but significantly increased in MPCOCs (133.9 vs. 204.8 pg/ml). Our results demonstrate that caffeine treatment during 38-42 h of IVM improves developmental competence of SCNT embryos derived from MPCOCs by influencing cytoplasmic maturation including increased MPF activity in IVM oocytes in pigs.

The elevated temperature and high humidity has been known as main reason for heat stress on animals and cause detrimental effects on productivity of organisms and physiological conditions of normal bioactivities. The aims of this study were to evaluate the relationship between time of heat shock simulation during in vitro maturation and developmental competence of subsequent embryo after in vitro fertilization. Heat shocked cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) of Korean native cattle were subjected to normal conditions for 22, 21, 18 and 12 h respectively and transferred to heat stress inducing condition at 40.5 °C in other incubator for 0 (control), 1 and 4 h. After maturation for 22 h, the oocytes were fertilized and cultured in mSOF media for 8 d and examined the developmental capacity of embryos. There were no differences in maturation and cleavage rates between 0, 1 and 4 h heat socked oocytes, but blastocysts formation were lower in the 4 h heat stressed oocytes. The apoptotic cells of developed blastocysts were also increased in at day 8 with 4 h heat shocked oocytes. These results indicate that heat shock on oocytes during maturation could cause negative effects on the developmental competence of embryos.

Electrical product safety certification is for public safety. Korea electrical safety certification (KC) is being tested and certified on the base of Korean electrical appliance safety act and KC scheme. There are operating system and Electrical safety standards in the KC scheme. KC' operating system was adapted from japan operating system of Japan certification scheme. But KC certification' electrical safety standard was adapted from IEC standards of IECEE CB scheme. So There are many problems such as difference of version between KC standards and IEC standards, discrepancy between operating system and standards. Therefore, This paper analyzed the reason of discrepancy and proposed the improved KC certification operating system in order to reduce cost and to save time in the procedure of issuing KC approval for public safety in using electrical products and also for global competence.

There is increasing pressure on world language educators to expand the cultural instruction in their curriculum and to advocate for their language programs as a means to prepare learners with 21st century skills (The Four Cs: Creativity, Communication, Collaboration, and Critical thinking). In similar vein, ACTFL’s Global Competence Position Statement (2014) further described the need for language instructors to foster learners’ interactional abilities and behaviors to perform effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from self. Yet many language educators are confused about best-teaching practices during this transition time from methods that focus primarily on students’ ability to use the language to communicate, to a time where it is increasingly emphasized that students should access content information through the language for meaningful cultural reflection. This paper demystifies some confusion about fostering learners’ intercultural competence in instructed language learning and concludes with a variety of tools and techniques to integrate computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and meaningful cultural inquiry at beginning levels of instruction.

Bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer (bSCNT) embryos can develop to the blastocyst stage at a rate similar to that of embryos produced by in vitro fertilization (IVF). However, the efficiency of somatic cell cloning has remained low, and applications have been limited, irrespective of the nuclear donor species or cell types. One possible explanation is that the reprogramming factors of each oocyte is insufficient or not properly adapted for the receipt of a somatic cell nucleus, because it is naturally prepared only for the receipt of a gamete. Here, we would like to introduce the aggregation method (agSCNT), a new experimental system that enables and increase oocyte volume and examined its subsequent development. Judgement by the blastocyst formation rate or total cell number was significantly higher in the agSCNT group than that in the SCNT group, and was very similar to that in the control IVF group. Moreover, the cleavage formation rate in the agSCNT group (61.5 ± 1.3) was higher than that in the SCNT group (39.7 ± 2.1), while still less than that in the IVF group (75.4 ± 1.3). We also analyzed the epigenetic modifications in bovine IVF, agSCNT, and untreated SCNT embryos. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that agSCNT improves the in vitro developmental competence and quality of cloned embryos, as evidenced by increased total cell numbers (TC).

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is the technique which generates embryos by transferring diploid nucleus into an enucleated oocyte, it has produced specific animals successfully in a variety of species. However, the developmental capacity of SCNT embryos is still relatively lower than that of embryos produced in vivo. Oocyte is a kind of lipid rich cells, its quality limits the efficiency of embryo production. L-carnitine is a co-enzyme facilitating the transportation of long chain fatty acids across the inner mitochondria membrane where fatty acids are used for generating adenosine triphosphate (ATP) via beta-oxidation. It also has antioxidant actions which may protect mitochondrial membranes and DNA against damage induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Whether L-carnitine is functional in bovine SCNT embryos are unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the effects of L-carnitine on oocyte maturation and developmental competence of subsequent SCNT embryos. L-carnitine was supplemented during IVM, then intracellular ROS and GSH levels, mitochondrial activity, gene expression of COCs were analyzed at the end of IVM. SCNT embryos were produced subsequently, apoptosis detection and gene expression evaluation were performed in blastocysts. In the results, treatments with 1.5 mM and 3 mM L-carnitine significantly improved maturation rates (P<0.05). Treatments with 3 mM L-carnitine effectively induced improvement in nuclear maturation, intracellular GSH levels and mitochondrial activity, as well as a reduction in intracellular ROS levels (P<0.05). mRNA levels of CPT1A, ACAA1, ACAA2, AREG, EREG, SOD1, GPX4, GLUT1 and CDC2 transcripts were effectively up-regulated by 3 mM L-carnitine treatments (P < 0.05). Similarly, 3mM L-carnitine induced an increase in blastocyst developmental rates and an improvement in blastocyst quality (P<0.05). Our study indicates that L-carnitine treatment during IVM improves oocyte nuclear maturation and subsequent SCNT embryo development.

The objective of this study was to establish the effect of post-activation treatment with cytoskeletal regulators of CB, CB+CHX, CB+DC, CB+6’DMAP on embryonic development of pig oocytes after parthenogenesis (PA) and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). PA and SCNT embryos were produced by using in vitro matured pig oocytes and treated for 4 h after electric activation with cytochalasins B (7.5 μg/ml), CB+cycloheximide (10 μg/ml), CB+demecolcine (0.4 μg/ml), and CB+2mM 6-Dimethylaminopurine. Post-activation treatment of PA oocytes with CB, CB+CHX, CB+DC and CB+6’DMAP no significant differences were found in embryo cleavage (83.2～91.5%), mean cell number of blastocysts (40.6～ 42.3% cells/blastocyst) but significantly (P<0.05) differences blastocyst formation (28.6～36.4%). When PA oocytes were treated with CB, CB+CHX, CB+DC, CB+6’DMAP, blastocyst formation was significantly (P<0.05) improved by CB (36.6%) compared to CB+CHX (30.9%), CB+DC (28.6%) and CB+6’DMAP (35.2%). In SCNT, was not significantly (P<0.05) increased by post-activation treatment with CB+CHX (81.3%), CB+DC (83.9%) and CB+6’DMAP (90.0%) compared to CB (84.5%) on embryo cleavage, blastocyst formation (19.1%~23.6%) and blastocyst cell number (39.6～41.4% cells/blastocyst) also were not influenced. But increased tendency in CB+6’DMAP. In addition, we investigated survivin expression in porcine SCNT embryos during the early developmental stages. The levels of survivin mRNA in 2-4 cell stage SCNT embryos were significantly higher 6’DMAP treated group than other treatment groups of SCNT embryos. These observations suggested that 2-4 cell cleaving embryos at have high developmental competence, and which may be influenced by survivin expression in porcine SCNT embryos. Our results demonstrate that post-activation treatment with CB, CB+CHX, CB+DC, CB+6’DMAP improves pre-implantation development of SCNT embryos and the stimulating effect of cytoskeletal modifiers on embryonic development is differentially shown depending on the origin (PA or SCNT) of embryos in pigs.

Introduction The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of staining of porcine cumulus-oocytes complexes (COCs) by brilliant cresyl blue (BCB) test prior to in vitro maturation may be used to select developmentally competent oocytes. Furthermore, milrinone can be used to promote developmental competence of porcine embryos produced during parthenogenesis (PA) and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Materials and Methods Slaughterhouse-derived porcine cumulus-oocyte-complexes (COCs) were exposed to BCB and treated oocytes divided into BCB+ (colored cytoplasm), BCB- (colorless cytoplasm) groups. After division into 2 groups, intracellular glutathione (GSH) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) of matured oocytes were compared. And, preimplantation development of PA and SCNT embryos were also compared between 2 groups. BCB- oocytes were exposed to milrinone with different concentrations (0, 50, 75, and 100μM) for 6 h prior to IVM for further development of embryos. Results and Discussion GSH was higher in BCB+ group than BCB- group whereas ROS was lower in BCB+ than BCBgroup. In parthenogenetic embryos, BCB+ oocytes group was significantly higher on maturation (87.5 vs 80.6, 71.3%), cleavage (88.6 vs 82.9, 76.3%), and blastocyst formation rates (34.3 vs 27.8, 25.3%) than control and BCB- oocytes groups, respectively. Moreover, ratio of ICM:TE cells were higher in BCB+ oocytes group (30.3% vs. 28.6, 26.4%, respectively) than other groups. In cloned embryos, the significant higher blastocyst formation rates were shown BCB+ groups (30.6% vs. 26.0, 20.1%) than BCB- groups. To improve the cytoplasmic maturation in BCB- oocytes, 4 different concentrations of milrinone (0, 50, 75, and 100μM) were supplemented in the IVM media for 6 h. BCB- oocytes supplemented with 75μM milrinone showed the significantly higher rates of blastocyst formation than other groups. Our results demonstrate that staining of porcine oocytes with BCB before IVM may be used for selection of good quality oocytes and milrinone supplementation can be used to improve embryo developmental competence of porcine embryos.

Ganglioside GT1b, glycosphigolipids with three sialic acid, is known to play an important role in signal transduction such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). EGF is also known to induce resumption of meiosis and cumulus cells expansion during porcine oocyte maturation. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the effects of ganglioside GT1b on resumption of meiosis and cumulus cells expansion in porcine oocyte maturation. First, porcine cumulus-oocyte complexes were cultured in NCSU-23 medium supplemented with GT1b (0, 1, 2 and 4 μM) at 44 h. We observed that the proportion of the metaphase II (M II) stage was significantly increased in the 2 μM GT1b (78.0 ± 2.3) treated group than in the other groups. Furthermore, expression of cumulus cells expansion factor genes (Has2, TNFAIP6, Ptx3) were significantly increased in the 2 μM GT1b treated group than in the other groups. Next, we investigated the meiotic maturation and the expressions of cumulus cells expansion factor genes after GT1b and/or EGF treatment. The proportion of the M II stage was significantly higher in the GT1b+EGF (90.1 ± 2.3) treated group than in the other groups. Moreover, expressions of cumulus cells expansion factor genes were significantly increased in the GT1b+EGF treated group than in the control group. After in vitro fertilization, fertilization rate, preimplantation development competence and quality of blastocyst were improved in oocytes derived from GT1b+EGF treated group. Taken together, these results suggest that exogenous ganglioside GT1b improving the developmental competence of porcine embryos via increase of resumption of meiosis and cumulus cells expansion during in vitro maturation of porcine oocytes.

본 연구는 대부분의 시간을 자녀와 함께 보내면서 중요한 역할을 하는 부모의 코칭역량이 유아의 리더십에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지에 대해 알아보는 것이다. 이를 위하여 충남 지역에 소재한 어린이집 4곳과 경기 지역에 소재한 어린이집에 다니는 유아의 부모와 그 유아를 담당 하고 있는 교사를 대상으로 설문을 통해 자료를 수집하여 분석하였다. 연구 결과, 사회인구학적 변인 중 부모의 학력과 소득수준이 높을수록 , 코칭교육 경험이 있는 경우에 코칭역량이 높은 것으로 나타났다. 또한, 부모의 코칭역량이 유아의 리더십에 영 향을 미치는지 분석한 결과 의사소통과 관계역량 영역이 유아의 리더십에 미치는 영향에는 유의미한 차이가 있는 것으로 나타났으며, 실행역량과 의식역량 및 성장역량은 상대적으로 설 명력이 낮은 것으로 나타났다. 유아의 리더십을 높이기 위해서는 부모의 코칭역량을 높이는 것이 중요하며, 특히 의사소통 및 관계역량 향상이 필요하다. 이러한 연구를 바탕으로 향후 저비용의 코칭교육 프로그램 개발과 교육기회의 활성화가 필요하다는 제언을 한다. 본 연구는 부모의 코칭역량이 유아의 리더십에 영향을 미치고 있음을 알리고, 부모의 코칭역량을 높이기 위해 코칭교육의 기회를 높이는 사회적 제도가 필요하다는 제언을 했다는데 의의가 있다.

Kim, KaHyun & Shin, Dongil. 2016. “A Critical Discourse Analysis on Global Talents and Their English Competence”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 24(3). 249~280. The purpose of this study is to examine the media discourse on global talents and their English competence through critical discourse analysis. The special feature articles of the JoongAng daily newspaper on ‘global talent’ were traced and analyzed. The articles of JoongAng Sunday magazine on the global talent, which were published between January 2008 and March 2016, were also examined. The analysis drew upon the van Dijk’s (2009b) sociocognitive approach. By understanding how social cognition played its role in formative process of the discourse with linguistic features, the dialectical relationship of the dicourse and the society was inferred. Findings revealed the schema of the global companies, which counted human resources as the goal of management and essential part of their success, empathized individuals’ role and led them to make efforts. Microscopic linguistic features formed global talent discourses with being influenced and affecting the macroscopic structure. The media discourse often valued self-improvement, which involved neoliberalistic orientation of global companies.

The paper observes that grammatical competence has been interpreted as the ability to judge grammaticality ever since the employment of communicative competence as the core basis of curriculum design in the 6th national English curriculum of Korea. It contends that this interpretation is different from what has been widely accepted in the literature on grammatical competence, that is, the ability to understand and express propositional meaning of utterances. The study suggests that a new and fresh look at grammatical competence needs to be taken in developing and implementing the national English curriculum which is to provide English learners in Korea with more potential opportunities for success in acquiring communicative competence.

The clustered regularly interspaced short plalindromic repeats(CRISPR)/CRISPR associated protein (Cas9) system can be applied to produce transgenic pigs. We applied CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate hG-CSF targeted pig parthenogenetic embryos. Using sigle guided RNA targeted to pig hG-CSF genes was injected into cytoplasm of in vitro matured oocyte before electrical activation. The CRISPR/Cas9 vector were diluted in Tris-EDTA buffer (TE buffer) and injected with different concentration of 0 (sham injection), 2.5 and 25 ng/ul. In results, regardless of the concentrations of vector, the cleavage and blastocyst rate were not significantly different among three groups. Since plasmid DNA was used for microinjection, we investigated whether DNA vectors were integrated into the genome. Genomic PCR of the coding sequence of Cas9 variants and hG-CSF was performed to detect genomic integrants. Each blastocysts were collected into a microtube, and then PCR was performed. Overall 32 embryos are not expressed targeted gene.

In mature oocytes, maturation promoting factor (MPF) activity is playing important roles in arrest at M-phase and its continuous phenomenon, oocyte aging. In most mammals, metaphase II oocytes show high MPF activity and have been used as ooplasts in somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Caffeine has been found to regulate MPF activity in mammalian oocytes. Caffeine inhibits p34cdc2 phosphorylation and increases MPF activity. The present study investigated the effects of caffeine treatment during last 4 hours of in vitro maturation (IVM) on oocyte maturation and embryonic development after parthenogenesis (PA) and SCNT. The IVM medium was medium-199, 10% (v/v) PFF, cysteine, pyruvate, epidermal growth factor, kanamycin, insulin, and hormones. Immature oocytes were matured in IVM medium without or with 2.5 mM caffeine during the last 4 hours of IVM. The in vitro culture medium for embryonic development was porcine zygote medium-3 containing 0.3% (w/v) bovine serum albumin. Nuclear maturation (83.6–87.2%) and intraoocyte glutathione contents (0.9–1.0 pixels/oocyte) of oocytes were not influenced by the caffeine treatment. The membrane fusion of cell-cytoplast couplets (75.5–76.5%) and cleavage (85.4–86.2%) were also not altered by the caffeine treatment. However, caffeine-treated oocytes showed higher (P<0.05) blastocyst formation after SCNT (47.5 vs. 34.3%) than untreated oocytes. Our results demonstrate that caffeine treatment during last 4 hour of IVM improves the developmental competence of SCNT embryos probably by influencing MPF activity.

The periods of elevated temperature and high humidity has been longer since last ten years and cause problems in program of artificial insemination or at the efficiency of in vitro production of transferable embryos. The aims of this study were to evaluate the relationship between time of heat shock (0, 1, 2 and 4), during in vitro maturation and developmental competence of subsequent embryo after in vitro fertilization. The develpmentat rate and percetage of apoptotic cells were evaluated on matured oocyte and day 8. 41℃ Heat treatment after IVM culture significantly decreased the developmental capacity of IVF embryos. Also the number of apoptotic cell in COCs, morula and blatostcysts was started to increase at 2 hr heat treatment but did not affect on the rate of maturation. These results indicate that heat treatment for 2 to 4 hr at 41℃ have negative effects on maturation rate of COCs and lower the developmental competence of heat shocked oocyte derived embryos.

Human body and head lice are obligatory human ectoparasites. Although both body and head lice belong to a single species, Pediculus humanus, only body lice are known to be a vector of several bacterial diseases. The higher vector competence of body lice is assumed to be due to their weaker immune response than that of head lice. To test this hypothesis, immune reactions were compared between body and head lice following infections by two model bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, and a human pathogen, Bartonella quintana. Following dermal or oral challenge, the number of these bacteria increased both in hemocoel and alimentary tract of body lice but not in head lice and the viability of the B. quintana was significantly higher in body louse feces, the major route of infection to human. In addition, body lice showed the lower basal/induced transcription level of major immune genes, cytotoxic reactive oxygen species and phagocytosis activity compared with head lice. These findings suggest that a reduced immune response may be responsible, in part, for the increased proliferation and excretion of viable bacteria which are associated with the high level of human infectivity seen in body versus head lice.

법무부는 정신장애자 범죄가 점진적으로 증가함에 따라 이들을 전문적으로 치료하고 사회적응능력을 향상시키고 이들의 재범을 방지하기 위해 정신질환 수용자들을 위한 정신보건센터를 2012년 이후 4개의 지방교정청관할하에 개원하였다. 이 연구의 목적은 정신질환수용자들이 정신보건센터에서 치료관련 프로그램, 교육프로그램, 훈련프로그램 등 각종 프로그램이 참가자들의 정신관련 치료와 사회적응능력 향상에 도움이 되는지를 알기 위해 각종 프로그램에 대한 분석이 필요하다. 또한 정신보건센터의 운영방식과 교도소 내의 정신보건센터와 지역보건센터와의 연계방안을 고려해야 할 필요성이 있다. 그리고 정신질환자를 위한 보건센터를 더욱 발전시키기 위해서는 외국주요국의 정신질환수형자에 대한 교정처우는 어떠한지를 살펴본 후 우리의 수형자를 위한 정신보건센터의 발전방안을 모색하고자 한다.

The goal of the present study is to examine EFL English teachers' intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and its relation to their English language proficiency (LP). Data was collected from 81 in-service and pre-service Korean English teachers (N=81) who participated in an one-month overseas training program in the U.S.A. The participants were asked to diagnose their own levels of ICC and LP through the questionnaires whose reliability and validity were confirmed by the factor analysis. The major findings from analyses were as follows: 1) in general, participants appeared to consider themselves possessing a high level of ICC, showing an average score of 3.99 out of 5.0 on the ICC questions, 2) participants' willingness and readiness to engage in different cultures/speakers were found to be in a higher level than the other four factors of ICC, such as an ability to interact in intercultural situations, an ability to identify an importance of ICC, a degree of acceptance by other cultures/speakers, and a degree of contribution to mediating intercultural situations, and 3) chi-square, correlational, and regression analyses showed significant associations between ICC and LP of the participants. Pedagogical implications and suggestions are discussed.