Most patients with chronic low back pain experience functional disability of trunk muscle, and limitations in physical activity. While there are many types of exercise programs available, in recent years sling exercise has been emerging as the exercise program for spinal stabilization. It has been supported by a great amount of research with positive findings on its effectiveness. This research studies the effects of bridging exercise, conducted on a sling, on pain level and trunk muscle activation in supine, sidelying, and prone positions during a 4 weeks period. 10 healthy people(normal group, n=10) and 28 patients with low back pain participated in this study. 28 patients were divided into two groups; one group participated in exercise with the sling(experimental group, n=14) and the other group exercised without the sling(control group, n=14). They were asked to use the Numerical Rating Scale(NRS) to answer to the level of their pain they felt (no pain: 0 point, severe pain: 10 points). During sling bridging exercises, the muscle activity level in each muscle measured in each position was standardized as three seconds of EMG signals during five seconds MVIC. In conclusion, the experimental group with four weeks of sling bridging exercise experienced a statistically significant reduction in the pain level(p<.05) and increase in the muscle activities of erector spinae when in supine position, internal oblique when in sidelying position, and rectus abdominis in prone position(p<.05). Regular sling bridging exercise reduces the low back pain and enhances other trunk muscle activation, thereby positively affect spinal stabilization.

The larch hawk moth, Sphinx morio, belongs to the lepidopteran family Sphingidae that has long been studied as a family of model insects in a diverse field. In this study, we describe the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequences of the species in terms of general genomic features and characteristic short repetitive sequences found in the A+T-rich region. The 15,299-bp long genome consisted of a typical set of genes (13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes and 22 tRNA genes) and one major non-coding A+T-rich region, with the typical arrangement found in Lepidoptera. The 316-bp long A+T-rich region located between srRNA and tRNAMet harbored the conserved sequence blocks that are typically found in lepidopteran insects. Additionally, the A+T-rich region of S. morio contained three characteristic repeat sequences that are rarely found in Lepidoptera: two identical 12-bp repeat, three identical 5-bp long tandem repeat, and six nearly identical 5~6 bp long repeat sequences.

This study was carried out to clarify the response of butterfly communities on forest degradation in the Gwangneung Forest, Korea. We monitored butterfly communities with varying degrees of human activities by conducting line transect twice a month in 2011. A total of 70 species and 4,676 individuals butterflies were observed in four sites: natural forest, plantation forests, and Korean National Arboretum. Species richness increased with increasing open land. The result on niche breadth and habitat type of butterfly was consistent with our predictions; specialist species and forest interior species were abundant in natural forest, whereas generalist species and grassland species were abundant in Korea National Arboretum, the most modified area. Also, habitat breadth of butterflies clearly indicated the difference on the degree of forest degradation. Butterfly diversity associated with landscape patterns based on aerial photographs supported mosaic concept which indicates that species diversity increases as habitat heterogeneity and variability increase. Forest management plan that maintains various habitats and ensures grasslands is necessary to increase butterfly diversity in forest.

To enhance the production efficiency of foreign protein in baculovirus expression system, the effects of polyhedrin fragments were investigated by fusion expression them with the enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP). Recombinant viruses were generated to express EGFP fused with polyhedrin fragments based on the minimal region for self-assembly and the KRKK nuclear localization signal (NLS). The increase of EGFP production by fusion expressions was confirmed through protein and fluorescence intensity analyses. The importance of nuclear localization for enhanced production of EGFP was shown by the mutation of the NLS within the fused polyhedrin fragment. Among the fusion expressed protein in cytoplasm, the most hyper-expression was observed in the fusion of amino acids 32 to 59 of polyhedrin. Polyhedrin fragment fusion expression with classical swine fever virus E2 protein also resulted hyper-enhanced expression of E2 protein. However, the fusion expression of porcine circovirus ORF2 with polyhedrin fragment did not show significant enhance of ORF2 production. These results suggested that the enhancement of foreign protein production when fused with polyhedrin is caused by the enhanced stability of expressed protein.

The mushrooms have been used as traditional medicines and food resources in many countries. The objective of this study was to determine antioxidant compounds and to evoluate tyrosinase inhibitory activity of extracts from Hypsizigus marmoreus. The pileus and stipe of Hypsizigus marmoreus were extracted with methanol and water, separately. The methanol extract of Hypsizigus marmoreus were fractioned by hexane, chloroform, ethylacetate and buthanol. The concentrations of total polyphenolics and flavonoids in methanol extracts were investigated by colorimetric methods. The concentrations of total polyphenolics and flavonoids in methanol extract of the pileus was higher than methanol extract of the stipe. The DPPH redical scavenging activity of the pileus extract was also higher than stipe extract in methanol extract. The IC50 of DPPH redical scavenging activity of the pileus and stipe in methanol extract were 18 mg/ml and 1 10 mg/ml, respectively. The IC50 of tyrosinase inhibitory activity of the pileus and stipe in methanol extract were 500 mg/ml and 1,000 mg/ml in methanol extract. These results suggest that Hypsizigus marmoreus can be potentially used as a source of natural antioxidant agent in the cosmetic industry as well as the food, pharmaceutical and medicinal industry.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), generated by the overexpression of transcription factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c‐Myc in somatic cells, are pluripotent. iPSCs reprogrammed from differentiated cells get through a epigenetic modification during reprogramming and finally have the similar epigenetic state to embryonic stem cells (ESCs). In this study, these epigenetic changes were observed in reprogramming of uni‐parental parthenogenetic somatic cells. Furthermore, we have shown that parthenogenetic pattern of imprinted genes were changed during pluripotential reprogramming. Parthenogenetic neural stem cells (pNSCs) containing only maternal alleles regain the biparental imprinting patterns after reprogramming. However, we have yet to define whether the changed imprinted genes are maintained or reverted to the parthenogenetic state when the reprogrammed cells are differentiated into specialized cell types. To address this question, we compared genome‐wide expression profiles of biparental female neural stem cells (fNSCs), parthenogenetic neural stem cells (pNSCs), and NSCs differentiated from parthenogenetic maternal iPSC (miPS‐NSCs). Furthermore, this study establishes the correlation between the alteration of genome methylation and activation of imprinting genes in the parthenogenetic cells and reports for the first time that the silenced PWS‐related imprinted genes are activated in miPS‐NSCs. Our data demonstrated that pluripotential reprogramming of parthenogenetic somatic cells were able to reset the parthenogenetic imprinting patterns; reprogrammed miPSCs showed erasure of maternal methylation imprints and acquisition of methylation in paternally imprinted genes. Furthermore, the changed imprinting patterns were maintained when the reprogrammed cells are differentiated into specialized cell type. * This work was supported by the Next‐Generation BioGreen 21 program (Grant PJ008- 009) funded by the Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

SERPINB3 (also known Squamous cell carcinoma antigen 1, SCCA1) is involved in apoptosis, immune response, cell migration and invasiveness of cells. It has been investigated in various types of squamous cell carcinoma. Therefore we investigated the functional role of SERPINB3 gene in human epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) using laying hens, the most relevant animal model. In 136 laying hens, EOC was found in 10 (7.4%). We compared the expression and localization of SERPINB3 using RT-PCR, quantitative RT-PCR, in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, and SERPINB3 activation was detected in chicken and human ovarian cancer cell lines using immunofluorescence microscopy. Thereafter, we examined the prognostic value of SERPINB3 expression in patients with EOC by multivariate linear logistic regression and Cox’ proportional hazard analyses. In present study, SERPINB3 mRNA was induced in cancerous ovaries (p< 0.01), and it was only expressed in the glandular epithelium(GE) of cancerous ovaries of laying hens. SERPINB3 protein was localized predominantly to the nucleus of glandular epithelium in cancerous ovaries of laying hens, and it was abundant in the nucleus of both chicken and human ovarian cancer cell lines. In 109 human patients with EOC, 15 (13.8%), 66 (60.6%) and 28 (25.7%) of those patients showed weak, moderate and strong expression of SERPINB3 protein, respectively. Strong expression of SERPINB3 protein was a prognostic factor for platinum resistance (adjusted OR, 5.94; 95% Confidence Limits, 1.21-29.15). Therefore SERPINB3 may play an important role in ovarian carcinogenesis and be a novel biomarker for predicting platinum resistance and a poor prognosis for survival in patients with EOC. This research was funded by the World Class University (WCU) program (R31-10056), Basic Science Research Program (2010- 0013078) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology and by the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (No.PJ008142), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

장수명 핵분열생성물인 79Se와 99Tc는 자연수 중에서 용해도가 클 뿐더러 음이온으로 존재하여 방사성폐 기물 처분장에서 주요 관심핵종들로 고려되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 KURT 지하수의 다양한 pH와 산화-환 원 조건에서 셀레늄과 테크네튬의 Solubility Limiting Solid Phase (SLSP)로 알려진 FeSe2와 TcO2의 용해 도를 측정하였다. 또한, 지화학코드를 이용하여 실험과 유사조건에서 이들의 용해도와 주요 화학종을 계 산하였다. 실험 및 계산으로부터 pH 8∼9.5와 Eh=-0.3∼-0.4 V 조건에서 FeSe2의 용해도는 1x10-6 mol/L 이하이며, 주 용해 화학종은 HSe-로 판단된다. TcO2의 경우는 pH 6∼9.5와 Eh<-0.1 V 영역에서 용해도와 주 용해 화학종이 각각 5x10-8∼1x10-9 mol/L와 TcO(OH)2로 나타났지만, Eh=-0.35 V조건에서는 주 용해화학종이 pH가 10.5∼12와 12이상에서 각각 TcO(OH)3 -와 TcO4 -로 계산되었다.

This study examines the effects of lightemitting diode (LED) light and temperature on lettuce growth. For plant growth, we used an LED bar composed of red, white and blue LEDs (4:1:2). Six types of cultivation equipment were used to measure the temperature. To compare their effects, the heights of the lettuces and the water temperatures were measured. The results demonstrated that the lettuce growth was optimal at 25ºC.

Porcine Circovirus Type2 (PCV2), a single-stranded DNA virus associated with Postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome(PMWS) of swine, has two major open reading frames, ORF1 and ORF2. The genomic size and molecular weight of ORF2 is respectively 699bp, 28kDa. ORF2 encodes the capsid protein (structural protein) that has type-specific epitopes and is very immunogenic and associated with the induction of neutralizing antibodies, suggesting its potential use in diagnostic assays as well as vaccine development. For efficient production of the capsid proteins, we expressed the PCV2 ORF2 gene with baculovirus in the insect cells. In this study, PCV2 ORF2 was appropriately ligated into the baculovirus transfer vector, pBacPAK9 and pB9-Acpol19-110-EK. Sf21 cells were transfected with a mixture of the purified recombinant transfer vector and bAcGOZA. We generated and purified recombinant viruses containing PCV2 ORF2, and named rAc-B9-PCV2ORF2 and rAc-B9-19-110-EK-PCV2ORF2, respectively. Expression levels of capsid fusion proteins with a partial polyhedrin region of AcNPV more increased than recombinant proteins from non-fusion expressed. Also, expression efficiency increased over time and differed at MOI. As a results, fusion expression of porcine circovirus type2 ORF2 using baculovirus could be utilized as an alternative expression method to produce recombinant antigen against PCV2 infection and is worthy of further investigation.

Aujeszky's disease (AD), also called pseudorabies, is an infectious viral disease caused by an alpha herpes virus and has domestic and wild pigs, as well as a wide range of domestic and wild animals, as the natural host. Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV) virions contain several envelope glycoproteins. Among them, glycoproteins gB, gC and gD are regarded as the major immunogenicity proteins and the antibodies induced by them can neutralize virus in vitro or in vivo. In this study, we investigated expression of these glycoproteins using the bacterial and baculovirus expressionn system. Successful expression of ADV glycoproteins in E. coli was confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis and their optimal expression condition was determined. However, the recombinant proteins generated in the bacterial expression system which lacks glycosylation process frequently lose their biological activity. We tried to express the ADV glycoproteins using the baculovirus expression vector system. The recombinant gB, gC and gD were detected at approximately 100, 60 and 50 kDa on SDS-PAGE and Western blotting, respectively. The optimal expression conditions were determined for MOI(multiplicity of infection) and post-infection days. One MOI and 4 or 5 days post-infection were the best conditions for the expression of the ADV glycoproteins in Sf21 cells. We are currently investigating the antigenicity of recombinant proteins using experimental animals.

Polyhedrin is the major component of the nuclear viral occlusions produced during replication of the baculovirus Autographa californica multicapsid nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcMNPV). To enhance the expression level of baculovirus vector system, we constructed several fusion vectors using various fragments of the polyhedrin. The polyhedrin fragments were genetically fused to the enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) under the control of polyhedrin promoter, and their expressions were analyzed in Sf21 insect cells. Expression of the fusion protein was identified by SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis using anti-GFP and anti-Polyhedrin. The expression level of eGFP was markedly increased by the fusion of partial polyhedrin. Also, the fluorescence intensity of fusion proteins was higher than that of non-fusion protein. Confocal laser scanning microscopy demonstrated that fusion proteins were localized to the cytosol or nucleus of insect cells. In additional, the glycoprotein E2 (gE2) of classical swine fever virus (CSFV) expressed by the these vectors was dramatically increased and its immunogenicity was proofed using experimental animal guinea pigs that were immunized with the partial polyhedrin containing gE2. This study provides a new option for the higher expression of useful foreign recombinant protein by using the partial polyhedrin in BEVS.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of treadmill walking in underwater and overground which affects gait and physical function of people who have had a stroke. Twenty people after a stroke who have become hemiplegic over 6 months were participated. Participants were divided into two groups: underwater treadmill group(UTG) and overground treadmill group(OTG). The intervention was done 4 times per weeks for 6 weeks and 1 session lasted for 30 minutes. Gait and physical function elements were measured at baseline, at the middle(3 weeks) and at the end of the intervention(6 weeks). For the elements of gait, walking velocity, affected stance phase, affected weight bearing were assessed. For the elements of physical function, Short Form 8(SF-8) health survey was used. The result of this study showed that both groups improved similarly in walking velocity. However participants in UTG improved more than those in OTG in affected stance phase(p<.05), affected weight bearing( p<.05) and emotional aspect(p<.001). Based on the results of this study, it can be suggested that treadmill walking both in underwater and on the ground can be effective in improving hemiplegic gait and physical function of people who have had a stroke. The result also suggest that the underwater treadmill exercise can be more effective than overground treadmill in restoration of gait in people after stroke.

The Classical Swine Fever Virus (CSFV) is a member of the Pestivirus genus of the Flaviviridae. The polyprotein composed of eight nonstructural and four structural proteins (nucleocapsid protein C and three envelope glycoprotein E0, E1 and E2). E2, the most immunogenic of the CSFV glycoproteins, induces a protective immune response in swine. The objective of this study was to enhance production of E2 protein by fusion with partial polyhedrin of nucleopolyhedrovirus in insect cells. We generated various E2 form by fusion with different combinations of the partial polyhedrin and deletion of the C-terminal transmembrane region (TMR). Expression of the E2 protein was identified by SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis using anti-CSFV E2 monoclonal antibodies. The fusion expression of an E2 protein with the partial polyhedrin markedly increased expression levels. Also, expression of E2 proteinlacking TMR region was higher than that of intact E2 protein. As a result, the fusion expression of E2 protein lacking the C-terminal TMR with partial polyhedrin was significantly increased in insect cells. These suggest that the fusion of target foreign protein with partial polyhedrin could enhance significantly the production of target protein.