The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of incentive spirometry and Ujjayi breathing technique on the pulmonary function of smokers. Subjects were individuals who had a smoking habit of at least a year. Subjects were randomly divided into 3 groups: the incentive spirometry group (n=8), Ujjayi breathing technique (n=9), and a group applying both incentive spirometry as well as Ujjayi breathing technique (n=8). Each intervention was performed twice a day, 5 times a week, for a total of 8 weeks whereupon the change in pulmonary function was evaluated. A spirometer was used to measure FVC, FEV1, and FEV1/FVC. The survey used for this study included the Fagerström Test of Nicotine Dependence (FTND) and the Shortness of Breath Questionnaire (SOBQ). Study results for the comparison within groups showed that in the group that performed both the incentive spirometry and Ujjayi breathing technique, FEV1 improved with statistical significance (p<.05). Furthermore, within this comparison the FEV1/FVC improved with statistical significance. Comparison amongst the groups showed no statistically significant differences in all areas. Following, to effectively increase pulmonary function in young adult smokers, both incentive spirometry and Ujjayi breathing technique should be employed together.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of foot position adjuster on body alignment and weight loads in chronic stroke patients. The subjects were 15 chronic stroke patients who were admitted to KHospital in Daegu, South Korea. The study compared the body alignment and weight load changes on flat ground with the foot position adjuster using Foot scan and Dartfish video analysis software. In the results of this study, posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS) alignment decreased significantly after use of the foot position adjuster and center pressure was significantly increased after use of the foot position adjuster. This study suggests that foot position adjuster influences body alignment and weight distribution.

We demonstrated an effective way of preparing melt spinnable mesophase pitches via catalytic hydrogenation of petroleum residue (fluidized catalytic cracking-decant oil) and their subsequent thermal soaking. The mesophase pitches thus obtained were analyzed in terms of their viscosity, elemental composition, solubility, molecular weight, softening point and optical texture. We found that zeolite-induced catalytic hydrogenation under high hydrogen pressure contributed to a large variation in the properties of the pitches. As the hydrogen pressure increased, the C/H ratio decreased, and the solubility in n-hexane increased. The mesophase pitch with entirely anisotropic domains of flow texture exhibited good meltspinnability. The mesophase carbon fibers obtained from the catalytically hydrogenated petroleum residue showed moderate mechanical properties.

We performed a survey for flavivirus infection and distribution of Aedes albopictus that known as Zika and Dengue virus vector using black–light trap and BG-sentinel trap around urban area in Korea. Mosquitoes were collected in 27 cities during March to November (twice a month) year 2016. Total numbers of mosquitoes collected 102,102 including 19 species 8 genera during collecting period. Total 21,467 Ae. albopictus was collected that 20,961(24.3%) by BG-sentinel trap and 506 (3.2%) by Black-light trap in urban area. Trap index(trap/night) of Ae. albopictus was showed highest in Hamyang (TI:992.3) and lowest in Taebaek (TI:0.3) there was only collected by Black-light trap. A total of 894 pools from all collecting Ae. albopictus were performed a Flavivirus detection. Flavivirus was not detected during study period. This study may provide basic information for surveillance of imported diseases (include Zika virus) and vectors in Korea.

Earthworms, especially Eisenia andrei, are cultivated for a variety of purposes including waste disposal and compost production. In this study, bacteria from earthworm gut were cultured and the dominant species identified. Subsequently, we isolated bacteriophages able to lyse the isolated gut bacteria. Two dominant genera of gut bacteria, Aeromonas sp. and Citrobacter sp. were identified by using MALDI-TOF MS analysis and a library was constructed to find lytic phages. Phage EF1 showed lytic activity for C. freundii and two Citrobacter isolates, C. braakii and C. murliniae. These 3 species have similar sensitivities to EF1. Several aspects of the life cycle of EF1 were investigated by using C. freundii under optimal growth conditions. EF1 infects C. freundii with a moderate latent period, approximately 25 min, and a large burst size averaging 5 × 109 per infected cell. Moreover, the antimicrobial activity of EF1 was well maintained under diverse conditions including a broad temperature range of 40°C to 50°C and a wide pH range of 4 to 11. In conclusion, the results indicate that earthworm casting contain a wide range of bacteria species, for which there are various corresponding bacteriophages.

Oxalic acid has a nematicidal activity against the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita. High producer of oxalic acid was isolated, and then named as Aspergillus niger F22. Oxalic acid production was investigated under various temperatures from 20 – 33oC and rotational speeds in 5 L jar fermenters. Yield of oxalic acid increased with decreasing temperature. The highest yield was obtained at 23oC, showing the yield of oxalic acid of 8.7 g/L, whereas oxalic acid production was least at 33oC. At 20oC, the yield was lower than that of 23oC. At a rotational speed of 300 rpm, serious oxygen depletion was present from 48 - 72 h, resulting in low productivity of 26.2 mg /L·h. When a rotational speed was set at 600 rpm, dissolved oxygen tension was over 40% and oxalic acid production increased up to approximately 55%. Viscosity during the culture differed with temperatures. Viscosity increased with the increment of temperatures. When A. niger F22 was cultured at 23oC, viscosity was 810 cP, which was favorable for oxalic acid production.

Biological control has been tried for integrated pest management. It is often comparable, safe, and environment-friendly, making itself an alternative for chemical agents. Filamentous microorganisms, i.e., fungi and streptomystes, produce many kinds of useful metabolites, and some of them have been developed as a biocontrol agent. However, they still have a long way because of the concern of manufacturing cost. Therefore, process development was intensively studied to meet cost-effectiveness. Operating conditions of bioreactor, e.g., agitation and aeration, had an effect on biological and physiological responses such as mycelial morphology, oxygen and nutrient transfer. Understanding relationship between operating parameters and microbial responses in terms of growth, substrate and oxygen consumption, and production yield was critical for process development. This study dedicated to build strategies for mass production of biological control agent using aerobic filamentous microorganisms.

One hundred seventy two accessions of safflower, collected in four countries were investigated for their morphological and biochemical characters in 2014. The accessions were categorized into two groups; South-Central (S-C) Asia and South-West (S-W) Asia, and each group was represented the accessions of two countries. Variation in morphological and biochemical characters was observed between two groups of accessions. The average value of seed weight and range of variability were higher in S-C Asia accessions while S-W accessions exhibited the variation in plant height, leaf length and days to flowering. The average value of oleic and total oil content were higher in S-C Asia accessions, and the values were 19.8%, and 231.4 mg.g-1, respectively, while the range of variability for total oil content was higher in S-W accessions. Plant height exhibited a significant positive correlation with days to flowering (r = 0.625**). Palmitic acid had positively correlated with stearic acid (r = 0.282**) and linoleic acid (r = 0.444**). Oleic and linoleic acid showed a strong negative correlation (r = -0.977**). The first three principal components explained 57% of the total variation. Morphological and biochemical variation exist in different groups of accessions could be useful to breeder for developing new safflower cultivars with high oil quantity and quality.

사우디아라비아 북부지역에서 수집된 홍화 총 100자원에 대 한 총폴리페놀 함량 및 항산화 활성을 평가하여 항산화활성이 높은 홍화자원을 선발하고자 연구를 수행하였으며 그 결과는 다음과 같다. 1. 총 100자원의 홍화유전자원에 대한 총폴리페놀 함량은 14.2 ± 0.41 μg GAE mg−1dw에서 81.6 ± 1.56μg GAEmg−1dw 까지 분포하였다. DPPH 라디컬 소거능은 1.6 ± 0.07 μg ASC mg−1 dw에서 14.1 ± 0.23 μg ASCmg−1 dw까지 활성을 나 타냈다. ABTS 활성은 34.5 ± 0.70 μg Trolox mg−1 dw에서 156.5 ± 3.06 μg Trolox mg−1 dw까지 평가되었다. 항산화활성 을 측정한 DPPH와 ABTS 활성간에는 상당한 유의성(r = 0.954**)을 보였다. 2. 홍화자원 100자원의 총폴리페놀 함량 및 항산화활성 결 과값에 대한 상호관계를 분석하여 활성이 높은 그룹(Group1)을 얻었다. Group1에 포함된 8개의 홍화자원은 나머지 그룹에 속한 자원들에 비해 항산화활성이 높았으며, 이중 K185841, K185879, K185863은 Group1내의 다른 자원들보다도 항산화 활성이 상당히 높아 홍화육종이나 기능성물질연구에 좋은 소 재가 될 것으로 사료된다.

Oncholaimid nematode, Oncholaimus secundicollis Shimada, Kajihara and Mawatari, 2009, is firstly reported based on a comparative morphological study. The present specimens of O. secundicollis are collected from rocky intertidal seagrass on the eastern coast of Korea. Oncholaimus secundicollis is distinguished from all of its congeners by the following combination of morphological characteristics: buccal cavity large with thick cuticular wall and three teeth, left subventral tooth larger than right subventral or dorsal teeth, and the presence of two remarkable precloacal papillae with nine pairs of cloacal setae and single ventral tail papilla with two pairs of short setae. In this study, we provide taxonomic description and illustration of unrecorded species of the genus Oncholaimus.

Three unrecorded species of free-living marine nematodes, belonging to genus Enoplus Dujardin, 1845 collected from rocky intertidal seagrass on the eastern coast of Korea, are described and illustrated. Enoplus taipingensis Zhang and Zhou, 2012 is characterized by longer body size, a series of lateral setae throughout the tail in male, the presence of trumpet-shaped precloacal supplement with well-dilated proximal end, and the presence of spicules with five to eight semicircular plates. Enoplus meridionalis Steiner, 1921 is characterized by the presence of trumpetshaped precloacal supplement with slightly dilated proximal end, paired massive spicules, and tail with two pairs of stout terminal setae. Enoplus mammillatus Timm, 1959 is easily distinguished from the congeners by narrow tubular-shaped precloacal supplement. In this study, we provide detailed morphological features of three Enoplus species by differential interference contrast microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. This is the first report on the species of the genus Enoplus from the Korean waters.

Mealworms, Tenebrio molitor (L.) is used as an important animal feed additive for growth promotion and health management, but potentially exposes to fungal infection. In this work, virulence of two species of entomopathogenic fungi against the insect, and the relationship between abiotic features and virulence were investigated. Secondly our consideration was also given to the effect of chemical fungicides on conidial germination for risk control. Between Beauveria bassiana (Bb) and Metarhizium roberstii (Mr) (previously M. anisopliae), Bb isolates had much higher virulence (~100% mortality in 3~4 days after the treatment), rather than Mr isolates in laboratory assays. Next, fungus-treated mealworms were kept at wheat bran at 20, 25, 30 and 35℃ with 3, 6, 9 times of water spray to the feeds for set-up of different humidity conditions. Inoculation of fungi to mealworms was conducted by fungal spray and feeding methods, which resulted in higher virulence in feeding method. In the feeding method, all temperature treatments except 35℃ showed high virulence against mealworms, but any significant relationship between virulence and humidity was not observed. In the chemical fungicide screening, fluazinam (CAS No. 79622-59-6) and mancozeb (8018-01-7) significantly inhibited the germination of Bb and Mr conidia. This work suggest that contamination of wheat bran with fungal pathogens, particularly B. bassiana may induce mycosis of mealworms, but introduction of effective fungicides possibly reduce fungal infection.

Pluripotent stem cells can be derived from both pre- and post-implantation embryos. Embryonic stem cells (ES cells), derived from inner cell mass (ICM) of blastocyst are naïve pluripotent and epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs) derived from post-implantation epiblast are primed pluripotent. The phenotypes and gene expression patterns of the two pluripotent stem cells are different each other and EpiSCs thought to be in a more advanced pluripotent (primed pluripotent state) than mouse ES cells (naïve pluripotent state). Therefore, we questioned whether EpiSCs are less potential to be differentiated into specialized cell types in vitro. EpiSCs were isolated from 5.5～6.5 day post coitum mouse embryos of the post-implantation epiblast. The EpiSCs could differentiate into all tree germ layers in vivo, and expressed pluripotency markers (Oct4, Nanog). Interestingly, EpiSCs also were able to efficiently differentiate into neural stem cells (NSCs). The NSCs differentiated from EpiSCs (EpiSC-NSCs) expressed NSC markers (Nestin, Sox2, and Musasi), self-renewed over passage 20, and could differentiate into two neural subtypes, neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Next, we compared global gene expression patterns of EpiSC-NSCs with that of NSCs differentiated from ES cells and brain tissue. Gene expression pattern of brain tissue derived NSCs were closer to ES cell-derived NSCs than EpiSC-NSCs, indicating that the pluripotent stem cell-derived somatic cells could have different characteristics depending on the origin of pluripotent stem cell types. * This work was supported by the Next Generation Bio-Green 21 Program funded by the Rural Development Administration (Grant PJ 008009).

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are self-renewing tripotent cell populations and have capacity of neuronal (neurons) and glial (astrocytes and oligodendrocytes) differentiation. Many researchers have reported that NSCs have therapeutic effects in neurological disease by transplantation. However, it is not easy to obtain NSCs in vitro. Recently, Yamanaka and colleagues showed that somatic cells could be reprogrammed into pluripotent state by enforcing reprogramming factors. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells undergo unlimited self-renewal and have differentiation potential into various types of cells like embryonic stem cells. Direct differentiation into a specialized cell types from iPS cells hold considerable promise for regenerative medicine as well as basic research. Here, we induced differentiation of iPS cells into NSCs in vitro and in vivo, which were compared with embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived NSCs and brain derived NSCs. NSCs from ES and iPS cells were morphologically indistinguishable from brain derived NSCs and stained positive for NSCs markers Nestin and Sox2. ES cells derived NSCs were transcriptionally distinguishable from brain derived NSCs. However, global gene expression pattern were similar but distinct between iPS derived NSCs and brain derived NSCs. Moreover, iPS derived NSCs were spontaneously aggregated upon passaging, formed ES cell like colonies, and finally reactivated Oct4-GFP. The spontaneously reverted GFP-positive cells (iPS-NSC-iPS) expressed similar levels of pluripotency markers (Oct4,Nanog) to ES and iPS cells, and could form germ line chimera. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that spontaneously re-reprogramming was associated with transgene re-activation when iPS cells were differentiated into NSCs. However, NSCs from dox-inducible iPScells could not be reprogrammed into pluripotent state without doxycycline. Taken together, iPS derived NSCs were morphologically and similar to brain derived NSCs, but differ in gene expression pattern and maintenance. * This work was supported by the Next Generation Bio-Green21 Program funded by the Rural Development Administration (Grant PJ008009).

Oleanolic acid is a natural triterpenoid that exists widely in foods and some medicinal herbs. The purpose of this study was to determine the antimicrobial activity of oleanolic acid against Streptococcus mutans strains isolated from a Korean population. Antimicrobial activity against these bacteria was evaluated by minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and time kill curves. The tolerance of human gingival fibroblasts and human periodontal ligaments to oleanolic acid was tested using a methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay. The MIC90 value of oleanolic acid for both S. mutans and S. sobrinus isolated from Koreans was 8μg/mℓ. Oleanolic acid showed bactericidal effects against S. mutans ATCC 25175T and S. sobrinus ATCC 33478T at 1 × MIC(8μg/mℓ) and had no cytotoxic effects against KB cells at this dose. The results suggest that oleanolic acid could be useful in the future development of oral hygiene products for the prevention of dental caries.

This study was to investigate the effects of upper and lower limb composing patterns of PNF(proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) on the static balance ability by 20 subjects for 6 weeks. This study was measured left one leg standing and right one leg standing with closed eyes on Good Balance system. These results led us to the conclusion that the mean speed of X, Y direction, COP(center of Pressure) velocity moment showed a statistical decrease when applying post-exercise. The above results from this study indicated that upper and lower limb composing patterns of PNF exercise has improved the static balance ability. As a result, this study showed that upper and lower limb composing patterns exercise improve the ability of balance in young adults. Based on this study, it may be applied to old people.

Bee venom contains a variety of peptides and enzymes, including serine proteases. While the presence of serine proteases in bee venom has been demonstrated, the role of these proteins in bee venom has not been elucidated. Furthermore, there is currently no information available regarding the melanization response or the fibrin(ogen)olytic activity of bee venom serine protease, and the molecular mechanism of its action remains unknown. Here we show that bee venom serine protease (Bi-VSP) is a multifunctional enzyme. In insects, Bi-VSP acts as an arthropod prophenoloxidase (proPO)-activating factor (PPAF), thereby triggering the phenoloxidase (PO) cascade. Bi-VSP injected through the stinger induces a lethal melanization response in target insects by modulating the innate immune response. In mammals, Bi-VSP acts similarly to snake venom serine protease, which exhibits fibrin(ogen)olytic activity. Bi-VSP activates prothrombin and directly degrades fibrinogen into fibrin degradation products, defining roles forBi-VSP as a prothrombin activator, a thrombin-like protease, and a plasmin-like protease. These findings provide a novel view of the mechanism of bee venom in which the bee venom serine protease kills target insects via a melanization strategy and exhibits fibrin(ogen)olytic activity.

In organic agriculture, various cover-crops have been used to control weeds. In this study, we have investigated the effect of Vicia tetrasperma (L.) Schred. (Eolchigiwandu) which is native to on major insect pests of pepper. Redpepper seedlings at 8 leaves stage were transplanted in 20th May 2009 into experimental field located in the farm of the department of agricultural biology, Suwon, Korea. A cover-crop cultivation plot was compared with a control plot mulched by black plastic-film. Density of aphids and damaged fruits by oriental tobacco budworm, Helicoverpa assulta, were surveyed ten times from 21 days after transplanting (DAT) to 82 DAT. Fifty and forty pepper plants were sampled to count the density of aphids and damaged fruits by oriental tobacco budworm per a plant, respectively. In current study, three aphid species namely, cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii, green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, potato aphid, Macrosiphum euphorbiae were collected. Overally, the density of aphids on pepper in the control plot was higher than the cover-crop plot. Especially, aphid density increased up to 67.44±26.8 in early stage of control plot, whereas aphid was not found in cover-crop plot. The rate of fruit damage by oriental tobacco budworm was significantly higher in the cover-crop plot than the control plot in early stage of pepper, however damaged fruit rate of pepper in the control plot was significantly higher since the middle of July.