Heavy metals have been analyzed on the non-woven from the 24 kinds of wet wipes and 8 kinds of mask packs. The following materials used in the non-woven according to each product are: rayon+polyester for the 12 wet wipe products, rayon+PET for the 5 wet wipe products, and rayon, cotton, rayon+polyester+cotton, pulp+polypropylene for the rest of the wet wipe products. No further information on the materials was found on the 3 wet wipes and 8 mask packs. However, polyester may be applied for the non-woven in wet wipes, because PET is part of the polyester group. The heavy metals analysis in the 24 kinds of wet wipes and 8 kinds of mask packs revealed the following: arsenic was found from 47.14±1.13 to 71.75±1.64 ㎍/L on the 3 products, the amount of nickel in the 2 products were 261.26±5.14 and 1,242.63±43.71 ㎍ /L, 53.69±1.45 and 103.52±2.02 ㎍/L on the 2 mask packs. It was also revealed that lead was detected from 7.23±0.32 to 55.67±1.46 ㎍/L on the 6 wet wipes, antimony was ranged from 187.86±5.24 to 19,558.35±3,537.30 ㎍/L on the 12 wet wipes, and 5.25±0.25 and 8,936±55.22 ㎍/L on the 2 mask packs. No cadmium, mercury, or thallium were detected from all the products. A high concentration of antimony might come from antimony trioxide, which was used as a catalyst when manufacturing the polyester. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that a non-woven used for cosmetic purposes should not use heavy metals as a catalyst when manufacturing, and it’s important to clarify which materials are used in non-woven.

Viral respiratory infections are common in horses, notably equine herpesvirus infection and equine influenza, which primarily initiate secondary bacterial respiratory infections such as strangles caused by Streptococcus equi equi. A decline in the production of stallions has been associated with these respiratory diseases leading to adverse financial implications. This study investigated the antibody responses against respiratory diseases in horses from Jeju Island a year after vaccination. A low level of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) (11.36%) antibodies was detected from stallions, however a high level of EHV-4 (95.84%) antibodies was detected from horses without vaccination against this infection suggesting that EHV-4 is ubiquitous in this horse population. In case of equine influenza, ranch stallions showed low positive rate (12.06%) whereas stallions from Subtropical Livestock Research Institute displayed higher positive rate (81.32%). Antibody responses against equine influenza and strangles revealed positive rates of 26.32% and 55.12%, respectively. These findings may draw attention towards the importance of developing an improved disease prevention and/or immunization program that will effectively control respiratory diseases in horses.

Respiratory diseases among horses cause economic losses in foals and productivity decreases in horses being raised and in adult horses. In South Korea, fundamental studies of horses’ respiratory diseases and those related to disease occurrence are insufficient. Therefore, the aim if the current study was to use diverse hematological indicators, obtained through hematological tests and measurment of blood antibody level in horses suffering form respiratory diseases, to monitor disease occurrence and prognosis evaluation. Investigations of infection states by horses’ bacterial respiratory diseases, susceptible drugs, and resisted drugs according to pathogens showed differences between farms. Among the β-lactam-based antibiotics, cephalosporin-based antibiotics showed some efficacy against Streptococcus spp. To review age-based changes in erythrocytometer hemograms in hematological tests of riding horses, red blood cell (RBC) tended to gradually decrease with increasing age this tendency was statistically significant. In addition, leukocytometer hemograms analyzed by age showed that total white blood cell counts tended to decrease with increasing age. These results of drug susceptibility tests and hematological tests, which have not been presented thus far, will be useful as standardized data in future breeding management and disease tests of Jeju riding horses.

This study investigated the design and establishment of AtoN(Aids to Navigation) in the AtoN Simulator. In recent years, IALA(International Association of Lighthouse Authorities) has raised the need of a system which could verify whether AtoN is appropriate for the design of AtoN and placement planning. An AtoN Simulator provides simulation circumstances, including the topographical and environmental characteristics of a primary harbor and the characteristics of a navigating ship and the maritime traffic. In the present study, we have developed an AtoN simulator system, including the integrated system design and the construction of an AtoN database. The AtoN Manager was developed as a virtual AtoN to manage the AtoN simulation. However, the data and materials are difficult to manage. Hence, an AtoN Manager and an AtoN simulation system have been needed for an effective managing of the AtoN properties database data. For the database structure design, we have analyzed the database design methodology. The AtoN properties have been analyzed for the effective data management. The AtoN properties designed in the present paper were classified into 19 categories. The status and properties database of AtoN were installed in 14 major ports, those were applied to the AtoN Manager. Designing the AtoN properties database was defined to reduce confusion of the use of English terms and abbreviations. The terms and acronyms have been defined in the AtoN properties and designed to the properties database structure for each AtoN. Before structuring the database for the AtoN Manager, the data of the AtoN properties for each harbor have been organized in accordance with the Excel system. The regulated data were converted into the AtoN properties database in use for the AtoN Manager. The database based on the AtoN properties table structure to each AtoN was designed. The AtoN simulator was implemented by the AtoN Manager applied to the AtoN properties database.

MicroRNA (miRNA, miR) is essential in regulating cell differentiation either by inhibiting mRNA translation or by inducing its degradation. However, the role of miRNA in odontoblastic cell differentiation is still unclear. In this study, we examined the molecular mechanism of miR-27-mediated regulation of odontoblast differentiation in MDPC-23 mouse odontoblastic cells derived from mouse dental papilla cells. The results of the present study demonstrated that the miR-27 expression increases significantly during MDPC-23 odontoblastic cell differentiation. Furthermore, miR-27 up-regulation promotes the differentiation of MDPC-23 cells and accelerates mineralization without cell proliferation. The over-expression of miR-27 significantly increased the expression levels of Wnt1 mRNA and protein. In addition, the results of target gene prediction revealed that Wnt1 mRNA has an miR-27 binding site in its 3’UTR, and is increased by miR-27. These results suggested that miR-27 promotes MDPC-23 odontoblastic cell differentiation by targeting Wnt1 signaling. Therefore, miR-27 is a critical odontoblastic differentiation molecular target for the development of miRNA based therapeutic agents in dental medicine.

Obesity is a risk factor for various diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, renal disease, hypertension, cancer, and neural disease. Adipose tissue in animals is important for the mobilization of lipids, milk production, deposition of fat in different depots, and muscle and meat production. Understanding the genetic and physiological causes of metabolic disease is a priority in biomedical genome research. In this study, we examined several variables in mice fed a high-fat diet, including serum composition, body weight, total calorie intake, and differentially expressed genes. Body weight and blood glucose levels were not significantly different between animals fed high-fat and normal diets. However, high-fat diet groups showed reduced calorie and food intakes. Levels of sodium, ionized calcium, glucose, hematocrit, hemoglobin, pH, PCO2, PO2, TCO2+, HCO3+, base excess, and SO2 in the blood were not significantly different between mice fed high-fat and normal diets. Serum potassium concentration, however, was lower in mice a high-fat diet. Differentially expressed genes were also compared between the two groups. The purpose of this study was to discover new genes as a result of annealing control primer (ACP) PCR using 20 random primers. Five down regulated genes were identified and three of others were up-regulated by high-fat diet. Known genes were excluded from this result. In addition, the relationships among candidate genes and high-fat diet should be investigated according to potassium concentration in the blood. In conclusion, mice fed normal and high-fat diets showed no significant difference in body weight, whereas high-fat diet led to changesin blood composition and differential expression of several genes. These findings may provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the association between obesity and metabolic diseases.

Recently, several companies have released H. pylori stool antigen (HpSA) test kits. However, there is little information about the usefulness of HpSA testing for Helicobacter felis, which is the major Helicobacter species in cats. The aim of the present study was to compare diagnostic methods for diagnosis of H. felis with HpSA tests and PCR assay using cat stools or gastric mucosa. Male cats (n=6) were infected with H. felis ATCC 49179 (1.0 × 109 CFU /cat) by intragastric inoculation two times at 3-day intervals, and stool specimens of cats were collected 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, and 21 days after infection for HpSA testing and H. felis-specific PCR. For the results, sensitivities of the HpSA test and PCR analysis were 50.0% and 83.3% respectively. Cats were sacrificed 21 days after H. felis inoculation, and gastric tissues were homogenized. All gastric biopsy specimens were positive based on a rapid urease test (RUT) (6/6, 100%) and PCR (6/6, 100%). Based on these results, the HpSA kit is useful and effective for monitoring H. felis infection using stool specimens. If an HpSA test could be made with H. felis antibodies in the future, its sensitivity could be increased further. Further, PCR assay could be successfully used to detect H. felis in stools. Application of this HpSA kit and PCR assay can be utilized as a non-invasive strategy to identify H. felis in cats.