The purpose of this study was to determine the difference of the pinch strength according to testing posture(standing and sitting) and elbow flexion degree(0。, 45。, 90。and 135。). Forty normal young adults(male: 20, female: 20, mean age: 22.68±2.91 years) participated in this study. The methods of this study were categorized as follows: 1) One set of measurement was performed on four elbow flexion degrees(0。, 45。, 90。and 135。) in two testing postures(standing and sitting) and all subjects were measured for 3 sets testing procedures in every experimental sessions. 2) Pinch strength in various elbow flexion degree was measured after 2 min rest time, and then each test set was repeatedly performed with 5 min rest time to prevent fatigue of muscles involved in the elbow joint. The result was obtained as follow: 1) In standing posture, there was statistically significant difference at 0。and 45。, 0。and 90。, 0。and 135。, 45。and 90。, 45。and 135。, 90。and 135。. 2) In sitting posture, there was statistically significant difference at 0。and 45。, 0。and 90。, 0。and 135。, 45。and 90。, 45。and 135。, 90。and 135。. 3) Statistically, there was no significant difference between standing and sitting posture in same elbow flexion degree, however pinch strength in standing posture was higher than sitting posture.

The majority of strokes are caused by ischemia and result in brain tissue damage, leading to problems of the central nervous system including hemiparesis, dysfunction of language and consciousness, and dysfunction of perception. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase(PARP) on necrosis in neuronal cells that have undergone needle electrode electrical stimulation(NEES) prior to induction of ischemia. Ischemia was induced in male SD rats(body weight 300g) by occlusion of the common carotid artery for 5 min, after which the blood was reperfused. After induction of brain ischemia, NEES was applied to Zusanli(ST 36), at 12, 24 and 48 hours. Protein expression was investigated using immuno-reactive cells, which react to PARP antibodies in cerebral nerve cells, and Western blotting. The results were as follows: In the cerebral cortex, the number of PARP reactive cells after 24 hours significantly decreased(p<.05) in the NEES group compared to the GI group. PARP expression after 24 hours significantly decreased(p<.05) in the NEES group compared to the GI group. As a result, NEES showed the greatest effect on necrosis- related PARP immuno-reactive cells 24 hours after ischemia, indicating necrosis inhibition, blocking of neural cell death, and protection of neural cells. Based on the results of this study, NEES can be an effective method of treating dysfunction and improving function of neuronal cells in brain damage caused by ischemia.

This study was conducted in order to investigate repeated-dose toxicities of Magnolia ovobata ethanol extract (MEE). MEE was administered orally to male and female Sprague Dawley rats at dose levels of 0, 500, 1,000, or 2,000 mg/kg for four weeks. Repeated administration of MEE did not induce abnormalities in general signs, body weight gain, feed and water consumption, necropsy findings, or organ weights. In addition, no abnormality was observed in hematological analyses; red blood cells and their indices, white blood cells, platelets, and coagulation times. In male rats, BUN and creatinine showed an increase at doses of 2,000 mg/kg and 500-1,000 mg/kg, respectively, while in female rats, lactate dehydrogenase and creatine phosphokinase showed a decrease at 2,000 mg/kg, the upper-limit dose of repeated-dose toxicity studies. However, there were no dose-dependent increases or gender-relationship. In addition, other parameters of the hepatic and muscular toxicities as well as energy and lipid metabolism were not affected. In microscopic examination, no considerable pathological findings were observed. The results indicate the safety of oral administration of MEE to the upper-limit dose.

Nanotechnology is currently receiving considerable attention in various fields of biotechnology. The uptake of nanoparticles by cells for labeling and tracking is a critical process for many biomedical therapeutic applications. However, nanoparticle labeling of porcine hematopoietic cells has not been demonstrated so far. In the present study, silica-coated nanoparticles conjugated with rhodamine B isothiocyanate (SR-RITC) were used to investigate the uptake of nanoparticles by porcine hematopoietic cells. Flow cytometric and confocal microscopic analyses reveled that the cells were efficiently internalized by the silica-coated nanoparticles. Furthermore, biocompatibility tests demonstrated that the SR nanoparticles were not cytotoxic, and they had no impact on proliferation. Our study demonstrates that silica-coated nanoparticles are taken up very rapidly and with high efficiency into porcine hematopoietic cells, with no apparent deleterious effects. Therefore, silica-coated nanoparticles appear to be a promising tool for tracking porcine hematopoietic cells.

Poly(vinyl chloride)-g-poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PVC-g-PSSA) 가지형 공중합체를 합성한 후, 이를 이용하여 80℃에서 열적으로 환원하여 은 나노입자를 제조하였다. 반응 시간을 바꿈에 따라 다양한 구조의 은 나노입자를 제조하는데 성공하였다. 1시간 정도의 짧은 반응 시간에서는 가지형 공중합체의 미세 상분리 구조를 크게 변화시키지 않고 5 nm 크기의 작은 은 나노입자가 생성되었다. 5시간 정도의 중간 반응 시간에서는 30 내지 50 nm 정도의 크기를 갖는 은 나노입자가 생성되었다. 18시간 정도의 긴 반응 시간에서는, 은입자가 뭉친 허리케인 모양의 은 집합체가 관찰되었다.

In an effort to gain a better understanding of the nature of the population genetic structure of the pest insect, Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), tobacco cutworms were collected from six Korean and five Chinese localities and their mitochondrial A+T-rich region and nuclear internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) regions were cloned and sequenced. A total of 106 A+T-rich region haplotypes and 92 ITS2 sequence types were obtained from 158 individuals. Compared to the preliminary mitochondrial COI gene sequence data that provided all identical sequence types in all samples, the A+T-rich region and nuclear ITS2 are highly variable. Overall, a low level of genetic fixation in the A+T-rich region (FST = 0 ~ 0.02965) and nuclear ITS2 (FST = 0 ~ 0.34491), and no discernable isolated population was noted to exist among most S. litura populations. The presence of a majority of within-population variations, rather than variations among populations or between China and Korea, indicates that the S. litura populations are composed of heterogeneous individuals. The fixation index at hierarchical level of among regions shows no significance, suggesting that the S. litura populations in both Korea and China are profoundly interrelated with one another. This finding is in accord with the current knowledge that S. litura has sufficient flight capacity for dispersal.

The fabrication of interconnect from titanium powders and powders is investigated. Corrosion-resistant titanium and are used as reinforcement in order to reveal high heat and corrosion resistance at the elevated temperature. We fabricated the plates for interconnect reinforced with by mixing titanium powders with 10 wt.% of nano-sized . Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) was chosen for the sintering of these composites. The plate made of titanium powders and powders demonstrates higher corrosion resistance than that of the plate of titanium powders alone. The physical properties of specimens were analyzed by performing hardness test and biaxial strength test. The electrochemical properties, such as corrosion resistance and hydrogen permeability at high temperature, were also investigated. The microstructures of the specimens were investigated by FESEM and profiles of chemical compositions were analyzed by EDX.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of group exer˗ cise program on depression in the elders with dementia. Subjects of this research were selected from the patients of Hyoja hospital(Yong˗ in, Korea). They were elders with dementia having minor to moderate degrees of cognitive function. Twenty-four subjects were randomly assigned into two groups, each with 12 people; exercise group and the control group. The control group only performed general physio˗ therapy, while the exercise group performed exercise program and general physiotherapy for 8 weeks. Depression of the exercise group and the control group were measured at baseline before the study, at 4 weeks, and at 8 weeks after the study. Depression was measured by Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form Korea Version(GDSSF-K). Firstly, when comparing the levels of depression within the same group, depression was significantly lower in the exercise group, after the group exercise program. However, depression of the control group did not show significant changes before or after the study. Secondly, when comparing the levels of depression of the control group and the exercise group, differences between the levels meas˗ ured before the study and 8 weeks after the study, was a statistically significant decrease of depression. Thirdly, effects of group exercise program according to the applied period were analyzed showing 8 weeks of group exercise to be more beneficial than 4 weeks. People who performed continuous group exercise program showed decrease in depression compared to the absence of group exercise program. This can infer beneficial effects of group exercise program. Group exercise program had desirable influence on decreasing the level of depression.

This study investigated consumers’ recognition on shelf life of health functional foods to set up their rational expiration date. For this study 107 male and female adults aged 20 to 59 years were randomly selected as major consumers of health functional foods. And their data were analyzed with SPSS 17.0. The questionnaire included questions asking a consumer's recognition on the shelf life of health functional foods and how to treat health function food passing its shelf life. In this study, the consumers were found to pay attentions considerably to the shelf life. But most of them did not know an accurate meaning of the shelf life of health functional food and mistook it for expiry date. In addition, the consumers doubted safety of health functional foods passing the shelf life. Therefore, education for consumers about an accurate meaning of the shelf life was needed. The results of this study were considered to be helpful to set up a reasonable expiration date for health functional food.

Grey field slug, Deroceras reticulatum Muller, is one of the major pests of chinese cabbage, Brassica campestris. To determine the economic thresholds of grey field slug on chinese cabbage, the slugs were inoculated after planting 1 week into chinese cabbages with a density of 0, 2, 4, 8, 16 slugs per 16 chinese cabbages(1㎡) at the plastic house in the spring and autumn of 2008. The rates of damaged cabbages by slug inoculation were 10.7% at 2 slugs and 42.7% at 16 slugs in the spring, and 20.3% at 2 slugs and 59.2% at 16 slugs in the autumn. The linear relationships between the initial slugs density and yield reduction of chinese cabbage were as following ; Y = 286.07x + 548.62, R2=0.9524(in the spring cultivation), Y = 318.91x + 998.05, R2=0.9323(in the autumn cultivation). Based on these results, the economic threshold of grey field slug per 16 chinese cabbages(1㎡) was 2.52 slugs in the spring and 0.86 slugs in the autumn.

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.