Background : Reactive oxygen species (ROS), whether produced endogenously as a consequence of normal cell functions or derived from external sources, pose a constant threat to cells living in an aerobic environment as they can result in severe damage to DNA, protein, and lipids. The effects of Valeriana fauriei extract and fractions on hydrogen peroxide-induced neuronal cell damage are studied. Methods and Results : Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathological process of neurodegenerative diseases. Valeriana fauriei extract (VFE) and EA fractions (VFEA) was investigated total phenolic contents using method. VFE of total phenolic contents had 2.54 ± 0.01 mg/g, also, VFEA had a 18.78 ± 0.03 mg/g. High phenolic content of the VFEA is expected to better the inhibition of oxidative stress. VFE and VFEA were experimented to inhibit ROS induced 200 μM 3-morpholinosydnonimine (SIN-1). VFE of inhibit SIN-1 induced-ROS dose dependently and signficantly. In addition, VFEA inhibition was also dose dependant and significant. Moreover, Treatment of SH-SY5Y and SK-N-SH cells with VFEA significantly reduced hydrogen peroxide-induced generation of intercellular ROS. Conclusion : From the above results, we may suggest that VFEA might have useful as a material for functional food and pharmaceutics for the pathological process of neurodegenerative diseases.

This study was conducted to evaluate the cytotoxicity and α-amylase, α-glucosidase, pancreatic lipase inhibition in vitro by different solvent fractions from the roots of Codonopsis lanceolata. The values of IC50 against Calu-6 cell showed a high effect in n-hexane fraction (10.13 μg/mL) whereas DW fraction exhibited the weakest inhibition on cell viability, having an IC50 value of over 1,000 μg/mL. The values of IC50 against HCT-116 cell showed the highest activity in n-BuOH fraction (102.01 μg/mL), followed by n-hexane fraction (145.85 μg/mL), methylene chloride fraction (332.02 μg/mL), ethyl acetate fraction (462.93 μg/mL) and DW fracion (>1,000 μg/mL). α-Amylase inhibitory activity in methylene chloride fraction and ethyl acetate fraction was found to have a higher inhibitory effect with 24.5% and 25.6% than the other fractions. The highest α-glucosidase inhibitory activity was observed from the ethyl acetate fraction extract, while the extract of DW fraction showed the lowest level of inhibitory activity at given experiment concentration. The pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity of C. lanceolata was found to have a higher the effect in ethyl acetate fraction. Inhibition of lipase activity of the ethyl acetate fraction and n-hexane fraction showed a relatively high, while the extract of DW fraction showed the lowest level at given experiment concentration. These results suggested that the roots of C. lanceolata may assist in the potential biological activity on carbohydrate, lipid Inhibitory activity and anticancer activity.

Purpose – This study intended to identify how resilience and character strength among employees are influenced by employment instability and the negative impact it could have on job satisfaction and psychological wellbeing. Research design, data, and methodology – This study hypothesizes that employment instability will have a negative effect on resilience and character strength, but resilience and character strength will have a positive effect on job satisfaction and psychological wellbeing. A total of 150 valid questionnaires were collected and utilized for analysis. Results – Employment instability was found to have a negative impact not only on job satisfaction and psychological wellbeing but also on employee resilience and character strength. Conclusion – The results suggest that along with the necessity for a strategic approach at the corporate level, enterprises should also acknowledge employee failures and support them in job situations. They should create a positive work environment and a structure of empowerment, interesting jobs, and a positive organizational culture to build various systems and the ability to enhance self-esteem and stamina in order to reinforce character strength.

This study was conducted to clarify the antimicrobial effect, antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of the biological composition having the Phytolacca americana, and to enhance the natural materials utilization of foods and cosmetics. The antimicrobial activities of the different parts of P. americana were evaluated using the agar diffusion test. The antimicrobial activity of P. americana was relatively high in Malassezia furfur known as a skin fungi and Vibrio parahaemolyticus compared to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus epidermidis. However, the antimicrobial activity in Vibrio parahaemolyticus did not show at all parts of P. americana. Both the DPPH radical scavenging activity and ABTS radical scavenging activity have been increased with the higher concentration of methanol extract. In particular, leaf extract of P. americana exhibited the highest activity both ABTS radical scavenging activity and DPPH radical scavenging activity. The nitrite scavenging activity was decreased when the pH was changed from pH 1.2 to pH 6.0. The highest nitrite scavenging activity was exhibited from the methanol extract of fruit, followed by root, stem, and leaf at pH 1.2. However, the nitrite scavenging activity at pH of 6.0 was not almost detected. All plant parts of P. americana showed tyrosinase inhibitory activity. The highest activity was found in the stem, and followed by root, leaf, and fruit in order. These tyrosinase inhibitory activity was progressively increased in a concentration-dependent manner. In this experiment on the methanol extracts of different organ from P. americana, we confirmed that the extract of P. americana showed potent tyrosinase inhibitory activity. Taken together, we conjectured that the P. americana had the potent biological activities, therefore this plant having various functional components could be a good material for development into source of natural food additives and cosmetics

In the cement industry, a large amount of CO2 is emitted from the first production step, and moreover the most of secondary products go through a variety of curing processes in which fossil fuels are used, causing additional CO2 emissions. Thus there is need for developing technology so that the secondary cement products are to be processed with no or less frequent curing in the manufacturing stage, helping not only reduce CO2 emissions but also improve the economical efficiency. Thus, this study seeks to make a comparative analysis of the engineering characteristics of extruded panels which are manufactured using CSA, calcined kaolins and CAMC inorganic binder, and those of traditional extruded cement panels, and then to use the results as basic data for developing LEC extruded panels. The experiment results showed that unit weight and density of extruded panels were similar to those of the traditional mix of ordinary Portland cement, and that the ratios of the former’s water content and water absorption were 2~3% higher than those of the latter. On a material age basis of 28 days, the compressive strength was shown to be about 4.5 N/mm² more with 64.6 N/mm² for the 35 mm thickness, and 24.9 N/mm² more with 84.2 N/mm² for thr 50mm thickness, while the flexural strength was shown to be 2.4 N/mm² less with 14.1 N/mm² for the 35 mm thickness and 1 N/mm² less with 13.9 N/mm² for the 50 mm thickness compared to the traditional mix. These conflicting results in the cases of the compressive and flexural strength are though to have been due to the fact that the LEC binder had caused the greater volume expansion of the hydration products resulting from the hydration of the binder under the closely-knit structures thanks to the vacuum extrusion, necessitating future observation of the length changes and the fine structure. In addition, there were some cases where the 35 mm thickness had 1.0 N/mm² more than the 50mm thickness depending on the thickness of the panel. This is thought to be due to the difference in the hydration ratios incurred by the different caloric values per unit area depending on the thickness of the panel when going through a short period of curing process.

Iron is an essential mineral found in every cell of the human body to make the oxygen-carrying proteins hemoglobin and myoglobin. More than 2 billion people face Fe deficiency. Rice can be a potentially valuable source to supplement that mineral since it is staple food for two-thirds of the world’s population. To bring the nutritional level of the milled product up to that of the whole grain (brown), rice should be enriched with thiamin, niacin and iron. Thus we searched a possible allelic source from Heuristic or core rice set, which is derived from a total 24,368 rice germplasms, to increase the mineral content in rice varieties. The concentration and distribution of Fe in 137 accessions of core set of brown rice grain flour sample were determined by ICP-OES. The range of the concentration and distribution of Fe in 137 core accessions of brown rice grain were wide, from 0.088mg/L to 1.205mg/L, with mean 0.292mg/L. To examine Fe related genes, whole-genome resequencing data of 137 accessions of rice core set were analyzed by Genome Wide Associations Study (GWAS). Our result suggests that Fe determined by ICP-OES facilitates the evaluation of the differences in Fe composition for future rice breeding program

This study was performed to analyze genetic relationship of the four major Cucurbitaceae crop. We used 120 Expressed Sequence Tag(EST)-Simple Sequence Repeat(SSR) primer sets of developed from watermelon and published in International Cucurbit Genomics Initiative (ICuGI) database. Among 120 EST-SSR primer, 51(49.17%) EST-SSR primer set successfully amplified and 49(40.8%) EST-SSR primer set showed polymorphisms among eight cultivars of Cucurbitaceae. In the first instance, amplified PCR products analysis was conducted by the agarose-gel electrophoresis then further analyzed by using Fragment Analyzer. A total 382 PCR band were producted by 49 EST-SSR primers in 24 plant panels, used the analysis of pairwise similarity and dendrogram construction. Assessment of the genetic relationships resulted in similarity index with range of 0.0103 to 0.8452. In dendrogram, 24 plant panels were formed three major groups (A, B, C) and 7 subgroups (A-1, A-2, B-1, B-2, B-3, C-1, C-2). Major group A was comprised of 2 subgroups, subgroup A-1 (6 watermelon cultivars, Citrullus lanatus var. vulgaris Schrad.) and subgroup A-2 (3 wild type watermelon, Citrullus lanatus var. citroides Mats. & Nakai). Major group B was comprised of 3 subgroups, subgroup B-1 (4 melon cultivars, Cucumis melo var. cantalupensis Naudin.), subgroup B-2 (2 oriental melon cultivars, Cucumis melo var. conomon Makino.) and subgroup B-3 (5 cucumber cultivars, Cucumis sativus L.). Major group C was comprised of 2 subgroups, subgroup C-1 [2 squash/ pumpkin cultivars, Cucurbita moschata (Duch. ex Lam.)/Duch. & Poir. and Cucurbita maxima Duch.] and subgroup C-2(2 squash/pumpkin cultivars, Cucurbita pepo L./Cucurbita ficifolia Bouche.)

“Hojoong”, a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar was developed by the National Institute of Crop Science, RDA, Iksan, Korea, during the period from 2006 to 2012. The heading and maturing dates of this variety were May 2 and June 10 in upland, and May 3 and June 7 in paddy field, respectively. It is an It is an awned, semi-dwarf and soft red winter wheat. Culm and spike length of “Hojoong” were 79cm and 9.1cm. It had lower test weight (803 g/ℓ) and 1,000 grain weight (39.5g) than “Keumkang”. It showed resistance to pre-harvest sprouting, which lower rate of pre-harvest sprouting (5.5%) than “Keumkang”. “Hojoong” had lower flour yield (66.7%) and ash content (0.38%) than “Keumkang”. It showed lower protein content (11.3%) and lower SDS-sedimentation volume (34.0㎖) and amylose content (20.5%) than “Keumkang”. It showed higher high viscosity (204BU) and lightness of noodle dough sheet (80.63). It showed different composition in HMW-GS compositios (2.2+12), PPO18 (876bp), GBSS B (null type) and Puroindolines composition compared th “Keumkang”. Average yield of “Hojoong” in the regional adaptation yield trial test was 5.51 ton/ha in upland and 5.10 ton/ha in paddy field. “Hojoong” would be suitable for the area above –10℃ of daily minimun temperature in January in Korean peninsula

“Baechal”, a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar was developed by the National Institute of Crop Science, RDA, Iksan, Korea, during the period from 2006 to 2012. The heading and maturing dates of this variety were May 1 and June 5 in upland, and May 2 and June 8 in paddy field, respectively. It is an It is an awned, semi-dwarf and hard white wheat. Culm and spike length of “Baekchal” were 75cm and 8.7cm. It had lower test weight (794g/ℓ) and 1,000 grain weight (35.7g) than “Keumkang”. It showed moderate to pre-harvest sprouting, which lower rate of pre-harvest sprouting (13.7%) than “Keumkang”. “Baekchal” had similar ash content (0.47%) and protein content (13.1%) to “Keumkang”. It showed lower gluten content (9.6%), SDS-sedimentation volume (38.2㎖) and amylose content (6.5%) than “Keumkang”. It showed higher high viscosity (643BU), water absorption (213%), expansibility of cooking (357%). It showed different composition in HMW-GS compositios (2*), PPO18 (876bp), GBSS (waxy type) and Puroindolines composition compared th “Keumkang”. Average yield of “Baekchal” in the regional adaptation yield trial test was 4.89 ton/ha in upland and 4.83 ton/ha in paddy field. “Baekchal” would be suitable for the area above –10℃ of daily minimun temperature in January in Korean peninsula

Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused by Fusarium graminearum is a major disease problem on wheat and barley in Korea. The objectives of this study were to evaluation of korean wheat cultivars for Type I and Type II resistance to FHB. We screened for Type II resistance in the greenhouse using single floret inoculation and for Type I resistance in the field using spray inoculation. Sumai 3 was used the FHB resistant check. Thirty-two korean wheat cultivars were evaluated for resistance to spread of symptoms within spike. The 2013 field screening with wheat cultivar was located in Kimjae-si Joeonbuk Korea. All plots were inoculated twice. Mist-irrigation was applied to facilitate FHB development. FHB severity was assessed visually 21 days after inoculation on 20 arbitrarily selected spikes per plot. FHB severity was determined as the percentage of symptomatic spikelets from the total of all spikelets. For FHB resistance, the average of FHB severity of Type I exhibited ranging from 21.9% to 77.2% and FHB severity of Type II ranging from 20.8% to 100%. Namhae, Milseong, Geuru, Joen, Anbaek and Sukang were the moderately resistant cultivars while Gobun, Alchan, Dajoong, Eunpa, Shinmichal1, Eunpa and Uri were the most susceptible cultivars for Type II resistance.

Bakanae disease of rice, caused by Fusarium moniliforme Sheldon, the imperfect stage of Gibberella fujikuroi, is one of the most important rice diseases worldwide, but no rice variety has been found to be completely resistant to this fungus. Cultivation of resistant cultivars is the most beneficial way of reducing quantitative or qualitative losses to for bakanae disease in rice. To facilitate the study of this disease, accurate and large scale screening methods were developed for the inoculation and evaluation of Bakanae disease. Even and large scale infection was achieved by using F. moniliforme spore in tissue embedding cassette and seedling tray. The efficiency of F. moniliforme infection with the concentration of 1×106 spore/ml caused better distribution (F-value=33.96) than 1×102 (F-value=10.69), and 1×104 spore/ml (F-value=2.63). We established new criteria of healthy and non-healthy plant, and introduced calculation of proportion of healthy plants to meet fast evaluation of resistance level of each variety. The effect of F. moniliforme strains containing different genetic background was also evaluated with rice varieties to figure out the stability of resistance level. GA3 response of rice variety was significantly correlated with bakanae disease, but it did not adequate for direct indicator of bakanae disease resistance. These results indicated that a large scale infection method developed in this study is fast and reproducible, as well as a disease evaluation system provides an accurate measurement of bakanae disease resistance of rice.

The sex ratio (F:M) in the same population of oyster, Crassostrea gigas at the commencement of the study (2007) was 1:1.0, but changed to 1:2.8 by the end of the study (2008). The sex reversal rate in two-year-old oysters was 40.2%. Specifically, female to male sex reversal rate was 66.1%, which is higher than the male to female sex reversal rate of 21.1%. The sex reversal pattern of C. gigas appears to go from male female male, and as such is determined to be rhythmical hermaphroditism.

Farmers have use phosphate fertilizer to provide sufficient yields. However, overuse of phosphorus accumulate in soil and causes soil and water pollution. We evaluated the phosphate acquisition and growth characteristics of OsPT1 transgenic rice (OsPT1-OX, over-expressing the high affinity phosphate transporter 1) in high phosphate soils with different level of nitrogen fertilizer treatment to investigate removing ability of excessive phosphate from soil. OsPT1-OX had shorter culm length but more tillers than those of wild-type plants in each soil conditions. Phosphate content per dry weight of OsPT1-OX was 1.8 times higher than that of wild-type under control fertilizer treated conditions. Although the dry weight of OsPT1-OX was not different from that of wild-type plants, whole plant phosphate content was 1.7 times higher than that of wild-type plants under control fertilizer conditions. Tiller number and phosphate content per dry weight of wild-type plants increased following high levels of phosphate application but did not change by following additional nitrogen application. Tiller number and phosphate content per dry weight of OsPT1-OX did not change under the high phosphate condition, but increased following nitrogen application under similar conditions. Whole plant phosphate content was highest under high nitrogen and high phosphate application conditions. These results suggest that OsPT1-OX may reduce phosphate content in soils containing excess phosphate and may be further effective under high nitrogen condition.

Rice stripe disease, caused by rice stripe virus (RSV), is one of the major virus diseases in east Asia. The objective of this study was conducted to identify new resistance genetic source to rice stripe virus (RSV) disease. Genetic diversity of 155 rice cultivars was evaluated using 9 co-dominant InDel markers and STS marker ST10. These cultivars were classified into two groups by cluster analysis based on Nei`s genetic distances. The marker showed different band pattern among RSV resistance or susceptible cultivar. In comparison with bioassay for RSV resistance and genotyping using SSR markers showed that Stv-bi and InDel 7 marker observed recombination value within 3.8% and RSV resistance gene was closely related to InDel 7. Also InDel 7 divided as resistance type alleles and susceptible type alleles except for some varieties. Interestingly, 02428, Daw dam, Erguailai, Padi Adongdumarat, PERVOMAJSZKIJ, and Tung Ting Wan Hien 1 showed Japonica type in InDel 7 marker. However, these cultivars revealed resistant to RSV bioassay. These results indicate that those cultivar can be able to get the different gene resistance with Stv-bi gene. Newly identified resistance gene is considered useful for improving RSV resistance in japonica rice. Therefore, we will progress the allelism test and genetic analysis for identification of new gene source.

In order to improve rice dough functionality, we cloned 4 kinds of high-molecular-weight glutenin subunit (HMW-GS) genes from bread wheat, ‘Jokyeong’. Among them, we first examined Dx5 gene to generate marker-free transgenic rice for advanced quality processing of bread and noodles. The GluB1 promoter was inserted into binary vector for seed specific expression of the Dx5 gene. Two expression cassettes comprised of separate DNA fragments containing only the high-molecular-weight glutein subunit (HMW-GS) protein (Dx5) and hygromycin phosphotransferase II (HPTII) resistance genes were introduced separately to tumefaciens EHA105 strain for co-infection. Each EHA105 strain harboring Dx5 or HPTII was infected to rice calli at 3: 1 ratio of Dx5 and HPTII, respectively. Then among 66 hygromycin-resistant transformants, we obtained two transgenic lines inserted both with Dx5 and HPTII gene to rice genome. We reconfirmed integration of the Dx5 and HPTII genes into the rice genome by Southern blot analysis. Wheat Dx5 transcriptsin rice seeds was examined with semi-quantitative RT-PCR. Finally, the marker-free plants containing only Dx5 gene were successfully screened at T1 generation. This result also provides that co-infection system with two expression cassettes could be efficient strategy to generate marker-free transgenic rice plants.

“Joah”, a winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar was developed by the National Institute of Crop Science, RDA, Iksan, Korea, during the period from 1997 to 2011. The heading and maturing dates of this variety were April 26 and June 8 in upland, and April 28 and June 6 in paddy field, respectively. It is an awned, semi-dwarf and soft winter wheat. Culm and spike length of “Joah” were 78 cm and 8.4 cm. It had lower test weight (763g/L) and l,000-grain weight (43.0 g) than “Keumkang”. It showed moderate to pre-harvest sprouting, which lower rate of pre-harvest sprouting (12.3%) than “Keumkang”. “Joah” had lower flour yield (66.3%) and ash content (0.33%) than “Keumkang”. It showed higher lightness (92.29) of flour color than “Keumkang”. It showed lower protein content (11.5%) and gluten content (10.7%) and lower SDS-sedimentation volume(29㎖) and mixing time of mixograph than “Keumkang”. It was showed higher amylose content and high viscosity than “Keumkang”. It showed different compositions in HMW-GS compositions (2.2+12), PPO 18 (876bp) and Puroindolines composition compared to “Keumkang”. “Joah” showed similar firmness (2.20N) and higher volume of sponge cake to “Keumkang”. Average yield of “Joah” in the regional adaptation yield trial was 6.44 ton/ha in upland and 5.26 ton/ha in paddy field. “Joah” would be suitable for the area above -10℃ of daily minimum temperature in January in Korean peninsula.