Velvet antler is widely used as a traditional medicine, and numerous studies have demonstrated its tremendous nutritional and medicinal values including immunity-enhancing effects. This study aimed to investigate different deer velvet extracts (Sample 1: raw extract, Sample 2: dried extract, and Sample 3: freeze-dried extract) for proximate composition, uronic acid, sulfated glycosaminoglycan, sialic acid, collagen levels, and chemical components using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-light mass spectrometry. In addition, we evaluated the cytotoxic effect of the deer velvet extracts on BV2 microglia, HT22 hippocampal cells, HaCaT keratinocytes, and RAW264.7 macrophages using the cell viability MTT assay. Furthermore, we evaluated acute toxicity of the deer velvet extracts at different doses (0, 500, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg) administered orally to both male and female ICR mice for 14 d (five mice per group). After treatment, we evaluated general toxicity, survival rate, body weight changes, mortality, clinical signs, and necropsy findings in the experimental mice based on OECD guidelines. The results suggested that in vitro treatment with the evaluated extracts had no cytotoxic effect in HaCaT keratinocytes cells, whereas Sample-2 had a cytotoxic effect at 500 and 1000 μg/mL on HT22 hippocampal cells and RAW264.7 macrophages. Sample 3 was also cytotoxic at concentrations of 500 and 1000 μg/mL to RAW264.7 and BV2 microglial cells. However, the mice treated in vivo with the velvet extracts at doses of 500–2000 mg/kg BW showed no clinical signs, mortality, or necropsy findings, indicating that the LD50 is higher than this dosage. These findings indicate that there were no toxicological abnormalities connected with the deer velvet extract treatment in mice. However, further human and animal studies are needed before sufficient safety information is available to justify its use in humans.

In this study, numerical modeling on the gas flow and off-gases in the low temperature carbonization furnace for carbon fiber was analyzed. The furnace was designed for testing carbonization process of carbon fibers made from various precursors. Nitrogen gas was used as a working gas and it was treated as an incompressible ideal gas. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics for steady state turbulent flow was used to analyze flow pattern and temperature field in the furnace. The off-gas mass fraction and cumulative emission gas of species were incorporated into the CFD analyses by using the user defined function(UDF). As a results, during the carbonization process, the emission of CO2 was the dominant among the off-gases, and tow moving made the flow in the furnace be uniform.

In this study, gas flow pattern and temperature distribution in a laboratory scale low temperature furnace for carbonization were numerically analyzed. The furnace was designed for testing carbonization process of carbon fibers made from polyimide(PI) precursor. Nitrogen gas was used as a working gas and it was treated as an ideal gas. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics analysis for steady state turbulent flow was used to analyze flow pattern and temperature field in the furnace. The results showed that more uniform velocity profile and axisymmetric temperature distribution could be obtained by varying mass flow rate at the inlets.

Riboswitches are structured RNA motifs that can directly bind specific metabolites. The binding of metabolites further regulates downstream metabolism eliminating the need for any regulatory proteins. We searched for novel bacterial vitamin B1 binding riboswitches in the metagenome of sun-dried saline soil. Soil microbial metagenomes were studied using NGS analysis. A total of approximately 50 Gb of the sequence data was obtained by Hi-seq and 454 GS FLX sequencing, and these sequences were subjected to riboswitch search. Hi-seq generated 614 contigs showing similarity to riboswitches, while 454-based sequencing generated 383 similar contigs. We matched whole metagenome contigs to local BLAST databases constructed using 91 previously known bacterial vitamin B1 thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP)-box motifs, and 11 SAM S-box motifs. Repetitive BLAST comparisons to local BLAST databases with nucleotide sequences from NGS identified 14 novel TPP-box motifs, and 7 S-box motifs respectively from the metagenome contigs. Further, RNA secondary structure analysis with public databases Rfam, and RibEx using these 21 riboswitch candidates revealed one contig, D8PYI to possess the most probable TPP-box structure. We constructed intragenic synthetic riboswitches to investigate whether the TPP-box motif region in D8PYI could harness gene expression in the presence of TPP. Construction of biosensors containing 100~400 bp fragments of D8PYI contigs, and in vivo imaging using the biosensors displayed TPP-specific changes in the expression of a green fluorescence protein reporter. In this regard, the adaptation of in silico riboswitch screening from environmental metagenomes could provide biosensors for detection of specific metabolites.

Plant-parasitic nematodes are the most devastating group of plant pathogens worldwide and are extremely challenging to control. In the present study, we have performed a genome wide analysis to identify common genes among four nematode species consisting of root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita and Meloidogyne hapla), cyst nematode (Heterodera glycines), and free living nematode (Caenorhabditis elegans) respectively. Using their whole genome sequences, we predicted 15,274 genes from M. incognita, 38,149 genes from M. hapla, 8,061 genes from H. glycines and 23,894 genes from C. elegans, where, among the predicted genes, 1,358, 1,350, 1,401, 1,365 respectively from each nematode, code for common groups of proteins. Further, 2,067, 2,086, 1,566, 2,903 genes were recollected using Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG) database. Under our search criteria, a total of 800 common genes were identified in all the four studied nematode genomes. The most annotated conserved genes were obtained from four different species using Basic Local Alignment Searching Tool (BLAST). Uni- Prot Taxon identifier database was used to elucidate their taxonomic classification such as 698 genes under kingdom Metazoa, 660 genes confined to Nematoda, 290 genes in Chordata and 660 genes falling under class Chromadorea. The biochemical characterization of proteins expressed by these genes was examined using Pedant-Pro sequence analysis. The protein length, molecular weight, isoelectric point (pI), and transmembrane domain of the coded proteins were at a range of 300 to 999 amino acids (40.9%), molecular weight of over 100 kDa (96%), pI from 4.5 to 5.5 (27.6%) and 0 (56.6%), respectively. To classify protein function, the obtained BLAST hits were assigned to Gene Ontology classification scheme. The fractions of protein function were distributed as cellular component, biological processes and molecular function of the cell (22.2%), multicellular organism process (15.8%) and binding (48.3%), respectively. The current study provides an excellent resource for nematode functional genomics studies, which can be utilized further for studies on role of genes involved in nematode biological processes.

Human tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) is responsible for fibrin-specific plasminogen activation and plays a key role in fibrinolysis thereby aiding breakdown of blood clots in the vasculature. In the present study, in order to develop a system for production of recombinant st-PA and t- PAHis6 proteins in transgenic rice seeds, a DNA fragment encoding t-PA gene was selected and cloned to a plant binary vector (pMJ21) harboring a rice GluB1 promoter, an N-terminal signal peptide of the rice glutelin B1 protein and a Pin II terminator. The constructed plasmid was transformed into Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA4404 (pSB1) to facilitate introduction into rice callus. The insertion of the st-PA and t-PAHis6 genes into the genome of transgenic rice seeds and their transcripts were confirmed using PCR, and Southern blot as well as RT-PCR, respectively. The highest level of recombinant st-PA expression as determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was found to be 2,916 ng/total soluble protein (mg) in transgenic rice seeds. The amount of recombinant proteins expressed in transgenic plants was estimated to range from 634 ~ 2,916 ng/TSP mg (st-PA) and 925 ~ 2,640 ng/TSP mg(t- PAHis6), respectively. Immuno-blot analysis of transgenic rice seeds revealed single bands of approximately 68-kDa representing recombinant st-PA and t-PAHis6 proteins. These results demonstrate the expression and in vivo activity of recombinant st-PA and t-PAHis6 in transgenic rice seeds. This study is a promising endeavor for production of recombinant pharmaceutical proteins using rice seed system.

We pathologically investigated the effects of water irrigation during Er:YAG laser irradiation on wound healing in mouse skin. Fifty-one 6-week-old ICR male mice were used in the present study. Dermal wounds were generated on the skin of the backs using the Er:YAG laser at 100 mJ/pulse and 10 Hz with (4 ml/min) or without (control) water irrigation. Mice were then sacrificed on 0, 1, and 3 days after laser irradiation, and the crust of the skin and thickness of the thermal coagulation layer were evaluated pathologically. The epidermis extended faster in the water irrigation group than in the control group on 1 day. The epidermis with keratinized layers became thicker and the crust had completely detached after 3 days in the water irrigation group. The thermal coagulation layer was thinner in the water irrigation group than in the control group. Apoptotic cell death was prominent in the control group. Detachment of the crust was observed after 3 days in 50% of the water irrigation group and 20% of the control group. These results demonstrated that Er:YAG laser irradiation with water irrigation promoted faster wound healing

일본의 야간조명을 이용한 야행성 해충 방제 연구는 이미 실용화되어 보급되고 있다. 특히, 황색 형광등을 이용한 밤나방 방제 기술은 여러 작물에 적용되고 있다. 하지만 단일식물인 가을 국화는 밤나방 방제를 위해 야간조사하면 화아분화에 영 향을 미쳐 개화가 지연된다. 본 연구에서는 황색 LED를 이용하여 가을 국화의 개화지연 없이 국화의 꽃봉오 리를 식해하는 왕담배나방 Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner)을 방제하기 위한 황색 LED의 효과적인 점멸조건을 검토하였다. 적외선 센서를 이용한 actograph 상부에 20 mW/m2의 571nm-LED를 설치하여 왕담배나방의 비상을 억제시키는 점멸패턴을 조사한 결과, 명기 20 ms : 암기 80 ms의 점멸조건에서 유의하게 낮은 비상활성이 관찰되었다. 이것은 20 ms : 80 ms 점멸광이 왕담배나방 복안의 명적응을 촉진시켜 비상행동이 억제된 것으로 추정 된다. 야외에서 점착트랩+성페로몬제lure (Z)-11-hexadecenal：(Z)-9-hexadecenal ＝95：5，0.03mg/RS를 이용하여 무처리구, 연속광, 20 ms : 80 ms 점멸광을 야간 조사하여 왕담배나방 ♂성충의 유인수를 비교한 결과, 20 ms : 80 ms 점멸광에서 가장 낮은 유인수가 관찰되었다. 성페로몬제의 강한 유인에도 불구하고 낮은 유인 수가 관찰된 것으로부터 왕담배나방은 20 ms : 80 ms 점멸광을 기피하는 것으로 추 정된다. 본 연구는가을 국화의 개화지연에 영향을 주지 않으면서 왕담배나방 방제의 가 능성을 시사했다.

난지형 사료작물들의 신품종 개발을 위해서는 형질전환기법에 의한 유용 유전자의 도입이 필수적이다. 기니아그라스를 포함하여 높은 조직배양 능력을 가진 3종의 Panicum속 식물을 대상으로 Agrobacterium법을 통한 효율적인 형질전환 체계를 확립하였다. P. meyerianum의 성숙종자 유래 캘러스를 이용하여 acetosyringone과 betaine이 Agrobacterium의 감염에 미치는 영향을 GUS 유전자의 발현 정도를 통해 조사하였다.

기니아그라스의 유성생식 계통과 아포믹시스 계통을 이용하여 최적의 조직배양 조건을 검토하기 위하여 절편체 부위의 조직배양 능력 및 배양배지의 조건을 검토하였다. 그 결과 미성 숙배를 분리한 후 L-proline 2 g/L가 첨가된 캘러스 유도 배지에 치상하였을 때 높은 캘러스 유도율 및 활발한 증식을 관찰할 수 있었다. 또한 유도된 캘러스를 대상으로 재분화 효율을 조사한 결과, 성숙종자 유래의 캘러스는 재분화 능력을 가지고 있지 않은 반면에, 미성숙배 유