Although Serkowski used a single value K=1.15 in representing all the observed interstellar linear polarization curves by his empirical relation p ( λ ) / P m a x =exp (-K 1 n 2 ( λ m a x / λ ) ), where p m a x is the maximum polarization at wavelength λ m a x , we have noticed a meaningful variation in K from observations of 72 stars. By comparing K's with P m a x / E B − V a n d w i t h λ m a x , we have examined how the shape of the polarization curve is related with the degree of grain alignment on one hand, and with grain sizes on the other. We have shown that correlations between K, P m a x / E B − V a n d w i t h λ m a x , are consistent with the idea of Davis-Greenstein mechanism for grain alignment.

This study is conducted to investigate the effects of growth characteristics (GC) and DPPH radical scavenging activity (DRSA) of the heading lettuce ‘Fidel’ depending on four concentrations of activated mineral groups (AMG: 1.6% active minerals and 0.03% CaO) added to basic nutrient solutions (diluted by 0, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2%) and on four different light-emitting diodes (LED; B:R:W ratio = 0:1:12, 0:1:9, 0:5:5, and 2:3:5). Both 0.1 and 0.2% AMG showed better GC of lettuce in plant width, plant length, leaf width, leaf length, and the number of leaves than those of other AMG, while leaf thickness and chlorophyll value did not show significant difference among all AMG. Moreover, 0.1 and 0.2% AMG showed heavier shoot fresh weights than those of other AMG. As for the combinations of AMG and LED, B0:R5:W5 showed the best lettuce GC regardless of AMG compared to other AMG and LED combinations. As shown in the above results of LED, although there was a difference in lettuce growth by LED, the differences of lettuce growth by AMG were statistically significant. The DRSA was the highest at 82.8% in B2:R3:W5, followed by B0:R5:W5 at 77.8%. LED showed differences but AMG did not affect DRSA. Therefore, the optimal conditions in plant factory for GC and DRSA of the lettuce were 0.1% AMG and B0:R5:W5.

유방촬영장치(mammography equipment, ME)을 이용한 유방검사(mammography, MG)의 경우 유방암의 조기진단을 위해 가장 일반적으로 시행되고 있는 검사방법으로 유방 내 섬유화 조직, 미소석회화 및 종양덩어리의 발견과 진단은 유방촬영장치의 품질관리(quality management, QM)에 의해 크게 영향을 받게 된다. 특히, 유방검사에서 품질관리란 장치와 연관된 문제점들이 임상영상에서 영상의 질(image quality, IQ) 저하로 진단영역 축소를 초래할 수 있는 발생가능한 모든 문제점을 사전에 파악하여 교정함으로써 항상 일정 수준의 영상의 질을 유지하고 영상을 획득할 수 있게 하는 행위를 의미한다. 이에 본 연구진은 유방촬영장치를 이용한 유방검사의 품질관리에 대한 일반적인 내용을 요약하여 보고 한다.

본 연구에서는 CT영상기반 3차원 고관절모델을 이용한 컴퓨터시뮬레이션을 통해서 고관절의 운동범위 (Range of Motion)를 측정하는 방법을 제시하였다. 본 연구에서는 그 측정방법에 대한 기술적인 사항을 제시하고, 그 기술이 재현성 있게 실현할 수 있도록 대퇴골두 중심점의 결절, 대퇴골 외전(Abduction)/내전(adduction)회전축, 굽힙(flexion)/신전(extension) 회전축을 정의하고 측정하는 명확한 방법을 제시하였다. 외전각은 해부학적인 시상면(Sagittal plane)상의 Anterior-Posterior축에 대해 아래쪽(Inferior)면으로부터 Lateral 쪽으로의 회전각으로 정의된다. 최대외전각은 대퇴골두가 엉덩이뼈(Pelvis)의 절구(Acetabulum)의 테두리와 겹치지 않고 Anterior-Posterior축을 중심으로 회전할 수 있는 최대 외전각으로 결정된다. 굴곡각은 해부학적인 관상면(Coronal plane)상의 Medial-Lateral축에 대해 아래쪽(Inferior)면으로부터 회전각으로 정의된다. 최대굴곡각은 대퇴골이 Medial-Lateral축을 중심으로 엉덩이뼈(Pelvis)의 절구(Acetabulum)의 테두리와 겹치지 않고 회전할 수 있는 최대 굴곡각으로 결정된다. 정상고관절에 비해 인공고관절술을 받은 해당 환자의 경우, 외전에서는 60도 정도, 굽힘에서는 4도 정도 운동범위가 줄어들 수 있다는 예측이 나왔다. 본 연구에서 행한 시뮬레이션을 해보고 외전의 경우 운동범위의 감소가 예측되므로, 대퇴골두를 조금 큰 것을 고르거나 대퇴골목부의 길이 (femoral neck offset)를 길게 시술해야 할 필요가 있음을 의미한다.

고관절 시행에서 식립각도는 추후 환자의 운동범위나 힘의 분배조건에 따라 폴리에틸렌 라이너의 마모에도 영향을 미친다. 인공관절요소로부터 마모입자는 골괴사나 다른 생화학적으로 많은 합병증을 일으킨다. 이런 점에서 인공고관절에서 마모와 정렬각도를 수술 후 추시를 통해 측정하는 것은 중요하다. 특히 관절면의 마모를 측정하는 것은 그 량이 크지 않아 상당한 정밀도를 요구한다. 현재 널리 쓰이는 상용 소프트웨어는 재현성과 측정방법의 표준화가 되어 있지 않아 사용에 많은 어려움이 있다. 본 논문에서는 일반 병원의 방사선촬영 환경에서 CAD만 추가로 구비하면 행할 수 있는 인공관절면 마모와 식립각 측정법을 제시한다. 인공관절만의 X-ray영상을 이용한 본 방법의 정확도와 정밀도 평가를 수행하였다. 또한 실제 인공고관절환자의 X-ray영상을 가지고 2년추시에 따른 마모와 식립각을 측정하였다. 본 연구에서 제시한 CAD를 이용한 방법은 마모측정에서 정확도 0.06 mm, 정밀도 0.05 mm, 식립각은 0.27°의 정밀도를 갖는다.

Gonadotropins are heterodimers consisting an alpha chain (Cgα) and a beta chain. Interestingly, presence of complicated LH-β transcripts in rat testis was accidently found; testicular LH-β transcripts were confined in seminiferous tubules to spermatids, and the translated products were localized in the elongated spermatids. We hypothesized that mouse testis has potential to produce the tissue specific LH-β with similar structure to the rat testicular forms. To verify our hypothesis, we examined the adult mouse (ICR) testis using RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. The PCR revealed the presence of the identical products in the reactions for three LH subunit types. The expected product sizes for mouse Cgα and LH-β known as pituitary type were 224 bp and 503 bp, respectively. The testicular type LH-β products were produced by a primer set based on the rat sequences, with unexpected size of 800 bp. Sequencing revealed that the proximal and distal parts (2-82 and 661- 773 bp, respectively) were homologous to rat testicular LH-β cDNA, and middle part (83-660 bp) was a unique mouse-specific region. Both Cgα and LH-β positive signals were in the round and elongated spermatids and mature sperms, and the LH-β signals were more intense. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that the presence and localization of the LH subunits in mouse testis. Further studies will be needed to understand the precise structure and function of mouse testicular LH.

Background : Cudrania tricuspidata Bureau is a widely used medicinal perennial woody plant. Obtaining information about the genetic diversity of plant populations is highly important for conservation and germplasm utilization. In this study, we developed single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers derived from chloroplast genomic sequences to identify distinct Korean-specific ecotypes of C. tricuspidata via amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-PCR analyses. We performed molecular authentication of twelve C. tricuspidata ecotypes from different regions using DNA sequences in the chloroplast TrnL-F intergenic region. Methods and Results : SNPs were identified based on the results of nucleotide sequence for the intergenic region of TrnL-TrnF gene (chloroplast). Molecular markers were designed for those SNPs with additional mutations on the second base from SNPs for amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction (ARMS-PCR). HRM pattern analyses were performed using the Mx3005P QPCR System (Agilent Technologies, CA, USA). Conclusion : We collected 12 individual lines of C. tricuspidata from various region in South Korea and China. Based on the nucleotide sequence in the trnL-trnF intergenic region of these lines, six SNPs and a deletion of 12 bps were identified and 12 individual lines were able to be grouped in one Korean ecotype and two different ecotypes of chinese lines, chinese line 1 and 2. The SNP markers developed in this study are useful for rapidly identifying these specific C. tricuspidata ecotypes collected from different regions.

Background : Schizandra chinensis Baillon have five tastes and lately it is using a beverage broadly. Schizandra chinensis is one of the top producing medicinal plant in Korea. Mungyeong of Gyongbuk province produce almost of Schizandra chinensis. Maturity of Schizandra chinensis get 3 years and proliferation of Schizandra chinensis was not a manual. It is needed that a new cultivar has a big fruit and high quality chracteristics using processed food and beverage. Methods and Results : 105 lines of Schizandra chinensis were collected on Mungyeong, Yeongwol, Jinan. It were studied it’ characteristics especially it’s fruit trait. Fruit traits of Schizandra chinensis were researched on fruit length, fruit weight, maturity, number of fruit, male and female ratio, powdery mildew. Fruit length of Schizandra chinensis is relation of fruit weight. It were founded 15 lines of long fruit length. 5 lines were studied high fruit weight and it’s weight were 32 to 41g. Number of fruit has relation with fruit weight and high fruit weight gets many fruits. it’s numer of fruits were 3 to 41. Male and female ratio were very impotant characteristic. High level of female ratio has quantity of fruit. High level of female ratio were founded 2 lines. Finally It was selected 3 good breed lines of Schizandra chinensis. Conclusion : 105 lines of Schizandra chinensis Baillons were collected on Mungyeong, Yeongwol, Jinan. It were founded 15 lines of long fruit length and 5 lines were studied high fruit weight. High level of female ratio were founded 2 lines. 3 good breed lines of Schizandra chinensis were selected.

The isolated single coronary artery is a rare congenital anomaly, in which both coronary arteries arise from a solitary ostium. Diagnosis of coronary anomalies and identification of the exact anatomy of coronary arteries has significant clinical importance, hence, myocardial ischemia or sudden cardiac death is usually related to its course of anomalous coronary artery. Most patients with a single coronary artery are asymptomatic and have normal electrocardiogram and negative stress tests. However, if the patient has other structural abnormalities, for example, ventricular hypertrophy, the exam is determined. This report describes a case of single coronary artery, where the right coronary artery originated from the distal left circumflex artery in a patient with hypertrophic ardiomyopathy.

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is one of the most economically important cucurbitaceous crop over the world. Anthracnose disease caused by Colletotrichum orbiculare, result to severe damage to cucurbits worldwide. Anthracnose is a typical plant disease which significantly affecting the yield of cucurbit crop. Pathogeneis-related (PR) proteins are well-known plant defense proteins against pathogens. Therefore, we observed PR genes expression patterns when watermelon got anthracnose disease. We did RT-PCR experiment to evaluate differences of PR genes expression pattern among Au-Producer(R), one of the representative of resistance watermelon varieties against anthracnose, and 920533(S), one of the representative of susceptible watermelon varieties against anthracnose. As a result, there were differences of the expression of several PR genes between the R and S watermelon. Analysis of the function of these genes is expected to perform in the future.

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is one of the most economically important cucurbitaceous crop over the world. Screening of proper reference genes was needed to reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), and it is bausic step of many researches including gene expression analysis. However, the reference genes on watermelon has not yet been reported systematically. Therefore, eight candidates of reference genes were selected with reference to Arabidopsis or cucumber papers. They are β-Actin, elongation factor 1-α, glyceraldehy-3-phosphate-dehydrogenase, NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenase, leunig, polypyrimidine tract-binding protein1, ubiquitin-conjugating eznyme E2, and 18S ribosomal RNA. The expression levels of genes were evaluated by qRT-PCR under biotic stress (Colletotrichum orbiculare treatment), plant hormone treatment (100 μM ABA), and abiotic stresses such as drought, cold (4℃), salt (250 mM NaCl) stresses. We founded appropriate reference genes which did not induce or reduce gene expression levels under broad spectrum of stresses by qRT-PCR analysis. These results may provide proper information for the use of appropriate reference genes for gene expression studies in watermelon qRT-PCR analysis.

Mungbean (Vigna radiata) is a fast-growing, warm-season legume crop that is primarily cultivated in developing countries of Asia. We constructed a draft genome sequence of mungbean to facilitate genome research into the subgenus Ceratotropis and to enable a better understanding of the evolution of leguminous species. The draft genome sequence covers 80% of the estimated genome, of which 50.1% consists of repetitive sequences. In total, 22,427 high confidence protein-coding genes were predicted. Based on the de novo assembly of additional wild mungbean species, the divergence of what was eventually domesticated and the sampled wild mungbean species appears to have predated domestication. Moreover, the de novo assembly of a tetraploid Vigna species (Vigna reflexo-pilosa var. glabra) provided genomic evidence of a recent allopolyploid event. To further study speciation, we compared de novo RNA-seq assemblies of 22 accessions of 18 Vigna species and protein sets of Glycine max and Cajanus cajan. The species tree was constructed by a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo method using highly confident orthologs shared by all 24 accessions. The present assembly of V. radiata var. radiata will facilitate genome research and accelerate molecular breeding of the subgenus Ceratotropis.

The flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum (clove) have been used as traditional medicine for the treatment of male sexual disorders in Asian countries. Recently, there are some reports about the effects of the clove on reproductive activities in mammals. Therefore, its effect on testicular function was examined in male golden hamsters whose reproductive activity is inhibited by photoperiod such as winter climate. The male animals were given by daily oral administrations (56 consecutive days) in three doses (4 mg, 20 mg, and 100 mg/kg BW) of the alcoholic extract of the clove. Generally lower dose (4 mg) of the extract continued to keep the reproductive activities of testes. The both middle and high doses (20 mg and 100 mg) of the extract completely inhibited the testicular activity in some animals. Taken together, these results suggest a possible biphasic action of alcoholic extract of Syzygium aromaticum flower bud on testicular function.

Abiotic stress is the major limiting factor of forage crops growth and yields. The objective of this work was to study the stress tolerance and regeneration capability of transgenic forage crops carrying a MsHSP23 gene, encoding a alfalfa mitochondrial sHSP protein. The expression of the MsHSP23 gene was confirmed in bacteria, recombinant mHSP23 conferred tolerance to salinity and arsenic stress. Furthermore, mHSP23 was cloned in a plant expressing vector and transformed into forage crops such as alfalfa, tall fescue and bent grass. The transgenic plants exhibited enhanced tolerance to salinity and arsenic stress conditions. In comparison to wild type plants, transgenic plants were exhibited significantly lower electrolyte leakage. Moreover, the transgenic plants had superior germination rates when placed on medium containing arsenic. Taken together, these overexpression results imply that mHSP23 plays an important role in salinity and arsenic stress tolerance in transgenic forage crops. This approach could be useful to develop stress-tolerant plants including forage crops.

Although much effort has been made to find agronomically important loci in the soybean plant, extensive linkage disequilibrium and genome duplication have limited efficient genome-wide linkage analyses that can identify important regulatory genes. In this respect, recombination block-based analysis of cultivated plant genomes is a potential critical step for molecular breeding and target locus screening. We propose a new three-step method of detecting recombination blocks and comparative genomics of bred cultivars. It utilizes typical reshuffling features of their genomes, which have been generated by the recombination processes of breeding ancestral genomes. To begin with, mutations were detected by comparing genomes to a reference genome. Next, sequence blocks were examined for likenesses and difference with respect to the reference genome. The boundaries between the blocks were taken as recombination sites. All recombination sites found in the cultivar set were used to split the genomes, and the resulting sequence fragments were named as core recombination blocks (CRBs). Finally, the genomes were compared at the CRB level, instead of at the sequence level. In the genomes of the five Korean soybean cultivars used, the CRB-based comparative genomics method produced long and distinct CRBs that are as large as 22.9 Mb. We also demonstrated efficiency in detecting functionally useful target loci by using indel markers, each of which represents a CRB. We further showed that the CRB method is generally applicable to both monocot and dicot crops, by analyzing publicly available genomes of 31 soybeans and 23 rice accessions.

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.

Acinetobacter baumannii is usually considered an opportunistic pathogen that it responsible for a variety of nosocomial infections, such as, pneumonia, tracheobronchitis, meningitis, endocarditis, peritonitis, skin and soft tissue infections, and urinary tract infections. However, over the years, the organism has developed substantial antimicrobial resistance, and thus, the management of infections has become more difficult. The less common infective endocarditis is one of the more serious consequences of nosocomial bacteremia. Here, we report the successful treatment of the first case of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii endocarditis in a 33-year-old patient.

Resequencing data is actively used for searching QTL or analyzing genetic diversity in the crops. However, the complexity of genome, caused by genome duplication, limits the utility of genome-wide association studies and linkage analyses to identify genes that regulate agronomically valuable traits. Here, we propose a comparative genomics approach based on core or common variation-based recombination blocks (CRB) using single nucleotide variation (SNV) density information. We found that the soybean genomes are assembled with long and distinct CRBs as large as 10Mb. CRB-based comparative genomics enabled us to accurately identify recombination blocks at the whole-chromosome level. We identified the Ih locus that determines the yellow hilum color in soybeans using CRB-based mapping with representative indel markers. These results suggest that the CRB-based comparison method is a promising platform for molecular breeding and map-based cloning.

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is an important cool season forage plant that is not well suited to extreme heat, salts, or heavy metals. To develop transgenic tall fescue plants with enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress, we introduced a MsHsp23 gene expression vector construct through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Integration and expression of the transgene were confirmed by PCR, northern blot, and western blot analyses. Under normal growth conditions, there was no significant difference in the growth of the transgenic plants and the non-transgenic controls. However, when exposed to various stresses such as salt or arsenic, transgenic plants showed a significantly lower accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances than control plants. We speculate that the high levels of MsHsp23 proteins in the transgenic plants protect leaves from oxidative damage through chaperon and antioxidant activities. These results suggest that MsHsp23 confers abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic tall fescue and may be useful in developing stress tolerance in other crops. Compared with traditional plant breeding, genetic engineering provides a relatively fast and precise means of achieving improved stress tolerance of forage crops. Development of forage crops that are more tolerant to various abiotic stresses could lead to the use of more new lands for cultivation.