This study has assessed the anti-oxidative activities and cytotoxic effects of Lithospermum erythrorhizon ethanol extract and measured the effects of tyrosinase inhibition activities with a goal of estimating the usage of the medicinal plant as an ingredient of cosmetics. First, to perform a basic test on the extract, pH and UV-spectrum were measured. According to the measurement, the extract had control functions at pH 5.5, and maximum absorbance occurred at 530nm. In particular, DPPH (1-1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl)-inhibiting activity (IC50) and polyphenol content were 149.81 μg/mL and 51.28±2.52 mg/mL respectively. In addition, as extract concentration increased, tyrosinase inhibition activities improved as well. In raw 264.7 cell-based MTT assay, cell survival rates were 98% at 1000 ppm and 153% at 100 ppm. Therefore, it's been confirmed that there is almost no cytotoxin. According to the test results above, it appears that the Lithospermum erythrorhizon ethanol extract would be effective in anti-oxidation and application as a cosmetic ingredient.

Korean ginseng has been used for thousands of years as an important medicinal plant. Lime-Bordeaux mixture (LBM) was made with copper sulfate and quicklime, which was sprayed instead of pesticides in ginseng field. Net photosynthesis (PN) was compared between Treatment and Non-treatment of LBM in 3 Year Old Ginseng. PN in control plot recorded 2.94μmol (CO2) m-2s-1 at the first day of experiment, which was similar until the last day of experiment. However, The PN in LBM recorded 2.23μmol (CO2) m-2s-1, which was lower than that in control plot. As time goes by, The PN in LBM was gradually increased up to 3.21μmol (CO2) m-2s-1 and finally, it was similar with that in control plot at 7th day as a 3.20μmol (CO2) m-2s-1).

This study is a basic study on the development of functional substances involved in obesity prevention, lipid metabolism, and immune regulation. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a high-fat diet for 10 weeks. Allium monanthum extracts (AME) were administered orally to obesity-induced rats, and their lipid-lowering, antioxidative and various types of biological effects related to the immune system were examined. Blood free fatty acid and triglyceride concentrations decreased as the dose of AME increased. Total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol concentrations in the blood decreased as the dose of AME increased. The total cholesterol concentrations in the liver of the AME-treated groups were lower than the control group. The thiobarbituric acid reactive concentrations were lower in the plasma and liver of all AME-treated groups than the control group. Plasma AST and ALT activities did not show any significant differences among the treatment groups. IL-1β and IL-6 concentrations in the liver tended to decrease as the dose of AME increased. TNF-α and IL-10 concentrations did now show any significant differences compared to the control group. Lower expression levels of TNF-α, Apo-B and Apo-E genes were found in the AME-treated groups. Taken together, these results indicate that AME may show positive effects in lipid lowering, antioxidation and anti-inflammation.

The main aim of this paper is double-folded: it aims to examine the significance of Eliot’s re/reading of Baudelaire’s urban poetry in the formation of his modernist poetics and, thereby, to uncover the lasting presence of allegory in the modernist poetry of Eliot. Important texts for the exploration of Baudelaire’s impact on Eliot are his own later essays on the French poet. The poet of The Flower of Evil, according to Eliot, revolutionizes modern poetry not just by selecting the metropolitan life as the main subject matter of poetry but by penetrating into its shocking reality deeply and accurately. Eliot highlights the fusion of reality and fantasy as the essence of Baudelaire’s urban poetics and, at the same time, as the most important factor that he has learned from the French poet. However, Eliot’s later essays on Baudelaire are not fully helpful in explicating the French poet’s influence on his own urban poems in that Eliot’s critical writings on Baudelaire, mostly written after his 1927 conversion, are not so much concerned with the urban aesthetics of his poetry as with the ethical and religious agendas. Eliot’s early poems reveal that he develops his modernist sensibilities under the strong influence of Laforgue and Baudelaire. Viewed in the context of the poetic discourse of the French poets, Eliot’s early poems gradually move from Laforguian ironic voice and his detached attitude to Baudelairean aesthetics of allegory and shock. At the center of the impact of Baudelaire on Eliot lies the French poet’s deployment of the souvenir as an allegorical sign of the barrenness and the self-alienation of modern experience. In Eliot’s urban poetry, the souvenir is transfigured into debris and there exists a certain “genealogy” of debris. This genealogy begins with “Second Caprice in North Cambridge,” in which “the debris of a city” is a realistic sign of its ruined cityscape, and makes a radical turn in “Goldfish,” where “the debris of the year” is internalized as allegory of the inner death of modern experience. “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” unifies these opposing sides of debris in that “A crowd of twisted things” are mobilized to describe both the external urban space and the protagonist’s memory or “inner-scape.” Eliot’s deployment of debris as allegory of modern experience reach a peak in The Waste Land. As the title bespeaks, the poem is about the land of waste or debris. In this allegorical city of modernity, ghosts of the ancient period return as modernity’s others and their return transfigures the desert-like city into a ghostly land. In the secular Hell of The Waste Land, ruins/debris of cities, an allegorical sign of modern experience, become fused with ghosts, an allegorical sign of modernity’s others.

Ultrastructural characteristics of the germ cells and accessory cells in testis during spermatogenesis and taxonomic values of mature sperm morphology of Ruditapes philippinarum were investigated by the transmission electron microscope and scanning electron microscope observations. The testis is the diffuse organ that consists of branching acini containing developing germ cells and accessory cells associated with spermatogenesis. The morphology of the spermatozoon is of the primitive type and is somewhat different to those of other bivalves. The morphologies of the sperm nucleus type and the acrosome shape of this species have a cylinderical type and a modified cone shape, respectively. As some ultrastructural characteristics of the acrosomal vesicle, the peripheral parts of two basal rings show electron opaque part, while the apex part of the acrosome shows electron lucent part. These characteristics of sperm belong to the family Veneridae in the subclass Heterodonta, unlike a characteristic of the subclass Pteriomorphia showing all part of the acrosome being composed of electron opaque part. In particular, a cylinder-like nucleus of the sperm is curved. The spermatozoon is approximately 48-51 μm in length, including a long acrosome (about 2.40 μm in length), a curved sperm nucleus (about 3.40 μm in length), and a tail flagellum. The axoneme of the sperm tail shows a 9+2 structure.

The seminiferous epithelium cycle and developmental stages of spermatids in Clethrionomys rufocanus were observed under a light microscope. The seminiferous epithelium cycle was divided into 8 stages. Type Ad spermatogonia appeared through all stages. Type Ap, In, and B spermatogonia appeared in stages Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ, and Ⅳ. In the first meiosis prophase, the leptotene spermatocytes appeared from stage Ⅴ, the zygotene spermatocytes in stages Ⅰ, Ⅵ, Ⅶ, Ⅷ, the pachytene spermatocytes from stages Ⅱ to Ⅵ, the diplotene spermatocytes in stage Ⅶ. The meiotic figures and interkinesis spermatocytes were observed in stage Ⅷ. Developing spermatids were subdivided into 10 steps, based on the morphological characteristics such as the acrosome formation changes in spermatozoa, nucleus, cytoplasm, and spermiation changes. The C. rufocanus spermatocytogenesis and spermiogenesis results displayed similar results with Apodemus agrarius coreae and A. speciosus peninsulae. Considering all the results, the spermatogenesis may be useful information to analyze the differentiation of spermatogenic cells and the breeding season.

To understand the sex reversal characteristics in the longtooth grouper (Epinephelus bruneus), this study examined the sex reversal and artificial masculinization of wild caught E. bruneus reared in indoor rearing tank after a 17α-methyltestosterone injection. To domesticate a broodstock, 64 wild caught E. bruneus, between 47.0 to 110.0 cm in total length and from 1.5 to 21.4 kg in body weight, were reared in indoor rearing tank (4.0 to 5.0 m wide, and 2.5 to 3.0 m depth) for four years. Seven specimens showed sex reversal from female to male during indoor rearing condition, whose total length and body weights were from 63.0 to 99.0 cm and from 4.4 to 13.2 kg, respectively. After inducing artificial masculinization in 14 female E. bruneus with a 17α-methyltestosterone (2.0 mg/kg BW) implants for 3 years, spermiation occurred in 9 specimens (total length: 54.0 to 68.0 cm, body weight: 2.3 to 4.3 kg). Among the female to male sex reversals, two specimens returned back to being female, whose body weights were 2.8 kg (initially 2.6 kg) and 2.7 kg (initially 2.3 kg). Therefore, this study suggested that E. bruneus (> 3.0 kg) was more effective in masculinizing by 17α-methyltestosterone implants.

This study histologically describes the intersexuality of Scomberomorus niphonius collected from the coastal area near Jeju Island. A total of 126 S. niphonius, collected from March to July 2012 with a total length of 62.4 cm (±17.5) and a total weight of 1,701.9 g (±1,528.9) were used for analyses. From a histological perspective, two types of intersex were confirmed. One type had scattered germ cells from the opposite sex within the gonad. The second type developed germ cells from the opposite sex in the connective tissue of the outer gonadal membrane. The intersexuality was 14.3% (n=18/126), with females (21.3%; n=16/75) exhibiting a higher rate than males (3.9%; n=2/51). There was no displayed correlation between intersexuality and the total length and weight.

The outer dense fiber 2 (ODF2) protein is an important component of sperm tail outer dense fiber and localizes at the centrosome. It has been reported that the RO072 ES cell derived homozygote knock out of ODF2 results in an embryonic lethal phenotype, and XL169 ES cell derived heterozygote knock out causes severe defects in sperm tail development. The ODF2s splicing variant, Cenexin1, possesses a C-terminal extension, and the phosphorylation of serine 796 residue in an extended C-terminal is responsible for Plk1 binding. Cenexin1 assembles ninein and causes ciliogenesis in early stages of the cell cycle in a Plk1-independent manner. Alternatively, in the late stages of the cell cycle, G2/M phase, Cenexin1 binds to Plk1 and results in proper mitotic progression. In this study, to identify the in vivo function of Plk1 binding to phosphorylated Cenexin1 S796 residue, and to understand the in vivo functional differences between ODF2 and Cenexin1, we generated ODF2/Cenexin1 S796A/Cenexin1 WT expressing transgenic mice in a RO072 ES cell derived knock out background. We observed a severe defect of sperm tail development by ectopic expression of Cenexin1 S796A mutant and no phenotypic differences between the ectopic expression of ODF2/Cenexin1 WT in background and in normal wild type mice.

The objective of this study was to analyze the genetic diversity using SSR marker and investigate the fatty acid composition of perilla (P. frutescens var. frutescens) germplasm. Genetic diversity among 95 accessions, which consisted of 29 weedy types and 66 landrace accessions, was evaluated based on 12 SSR markers carrying 91 alleles. The mean values of observed (HO) and expected heterozygosities (HE) were 0.574 and 0.640, respectively, indicating a considerable amount of polymorphism within this collection. A genetic distance-based phylogeny grouped into two distinct groups, which were the landrace, moderate and weedy type, genetic distance (GD) value was 0.609. The physicochemical traits about crude oil contents and fatty acid compositions were analyzed using GC. Among tested germplasm, the total average oil contents (%) showed a range from 28.57 to 49.67 %. Five fatty acids and their contents in the crude oils are as follows: α-linolenic acid (41.12%-51.81%), linoleic acid (15.38%-16.43%), oleic acid (18.93%-27.28%), stearic acid (2.56%-4.01%), and palmitic acid (7.38%-10.77%). The average oil content of wild types was lower than landrace, and the oil content of middle genotype accessions was higher than other germplasm, but no significant variation between landrace and wild types was shown. Nevertheless, IT117174, landrace of Korea, was highest in crude oil content (47.11%) and linolenic acid composition (64.58%) among the used germplasm. These traits of the selected accessions will be helped for new functional plant breeding in perilla crop.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Woohwangcheungsimweun (ox bezoar), deer antlers, and wild ginseng on induction of cardiomyocyte differentiation using the established mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. The expression of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) was highest in Woohwangcheungsimweun treatment group. The expression of rabbit anti-GATA-4(GATA-4) and troponin (TnI) were highest in wild ginseng and Woohwangcheungsimweun treatment groups, respectively. Fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis showed that the expression of ANP was highest in Dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO) and Woohwangcheungsimweun treatment groups. The expression of GATA-4 was relatively high in wild ginseng treatment group. The expression of TnI was highest in Woohwangcheungsimweun treatment group. In the gene expression analysis, DMSO greatly inhibited GATA-4 expression to 25% of control. Woohwangcheungsimweun treatment caused to increase cTnI and cardiac ANP expression significantly. Wild ginseng extract upregulated GATA-4 gene expression. In conclusion, DMSO widely used as cardiomyocyte differentiation inducer did not show significant effects on the expression of ANP, GATA-4 and TnI in this study. Woohwangcheungsimweun showed upregulation of ANP and TnI expression. Wild ginseng extract showed greater effects than DMSO on GATA-4 expression. These results might suggest that the combination of Woohwangcheungsimweun and wild ginseng extract treatment can be expected to increase expressions of all three genes.

Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) has been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of cough, indigestion, circulatory problems and pain. The associated anti-inflammatory effect of this agent is achieved via the inhibition of Nf-kB signaling, a property that has been demonstrated to effectively control the symptoms of various skin disorders, including atopic dermatitis. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of Sea Buckthorn in reducing the production of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activated nitric oxide (NO) by inhibiting the Nf-kB pathway, as measured by the symptoms of atopic dermatitis (AD) occurring secondarily to inflammation and immune dysregulation. Our data demonstrate that Sea Buckthorn significantly decreased the LPS-induced production of NO (p〈0.001). Atopic dermatitis was induced by repeated application of 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene to the dorsal skin of mice. Topical application of 5% Sea Buckthorn extract improved the symptoms of AD, specifically reducing disease severity scores, scratching behaviors and epidermal thickness. When compared to the control group, animals treated with Sea Buckthorn exhibited increased serum IL-12 levels and decreased serum TNF-α, IL-4 and IL-5 levels. Such a modulation of biphasic T-helper (Th)1/Th2 cytokines may result in a reduction in serum IgE levels. Our findings suggest that mechanism of action of Sea Buckthorn in the treatment of AD is associated with a marked anti-inflammatory effect as well as an inhibition of Th2-mediated IgE overproduction via the modulation of biphasic Th1/Th2 cytokines. Such results suggest that topical Sea Buckthorn extract may prove to be a novel therapy for AD symptoms with few side effects.

This study attempts to propose the possibility of the sex reversal in Tegillarca granosa and Ruditapes philippinarum by confirming the changes in the sex ratio with the shell length (SL) in the same population level. For analysis of sex ratio with SL, 1500 individuals of T. granosa (SL 10.1-45.0 mm) and 712 individuals of R. philippinarum (SL 15.1-70.0 mm) were used. Sex was analyzed histologically. The average sex ratios (F:M) of T. granosa and R. philippinarum were 1:1.22 and 1:0.96, respectively. However, sex ratio was found to differ when the clams were divided into groups according to SL in 5.0 mm intervals. Both species displayed the tendency of increase in the proportion of female with increase in SL. In this study, changes in the sex ratio in accordance with the growth of T. granosa and R. philippinarum are determined to be indirect evidence that signifies their sex reversal.