The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of fad dieting as a method to lose weight among male and female college students. A total of 710 students participated in this study. Fad dieting was surveyed using a questionnaire about 11 fad diet methods. The mean age of the subjects was 21.4 years for males and 20.4 years for females. The proportion of students who had experience trying to lose weight was 52.8% for males and 78.6% for females (p<0.001). The diet method employed by the highest number of participants was the half meal diet (27.6% for males, 43.9% for females), followed by the cereal diet (8.8% for males, 43.9% for females), fasting (9.9% for males, 21.4% for females), and the chicken breast diet (13.1% for males, 9.2% for females). The female students were more likely than the males to try fad diets other than the chicken breast diet and the Atkins diet. The most frequent side effect of fad dieting was the yo-yo effect, followed by binge eating, weakness, anemia, and so on. The proportion of students who indicated that nutrition education is needed for healthy dieting was 39.1% for males and 45.4% for females. From these results, we concluded that a high percentage of college students attempt to lose weight through fad diets, with some gender differences. Therefore, in the future, nutrition education programs should focus more attention on providing healthy dieting methods to young college students to help them lose weight.

Pyracantha is a genus of thorny evergreen large shrubs in the family of Rosaceae, with common names Firethorn or Pyracantha. It's extract has also been used in cosmetics as a skin-whitening agent and functioning through tyrosinase inhibition. Recent studies have shown that pyracantha extract possesses antioxidant activities and may significantly improve lipoprotein metabolism in rats. Although the mode of action of Pyracantha extract is not fully understood, a strong relationship was observed between antioxidant and apoptosis in some types of cells. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluated the effect of pyracantha extract on blastocysts formation and their quality of the porcine parthenogenetic embryos. After parthenogenetic activation by chemicals, presumptive porcine parthenogenetic embryos were cultured in PZM-3 medium supplemented with extracts of pyracantha leaf, stalk and root for 6 day (1, 5 and 10 μg/ml, respectively). In our results, the frequency of blastocyst formation in pyracantha root extract (5 μg/ml) treated group had increased that of other groups. Furthermore, blastocysts derived from pyracantha root extract (5 μg/ml) treated group had increased the total cell numbers and reduced apoptotic index. Blastocyst development was significantly improved in the pyracantha root extract (5 μg/ml) treated group when compared with the H2O2 treated group (p<0.05). Subsequent evaluation of the intracellular levels of ROS in pyracantha root extract (5 μg/ml) treated groups under H2O2 induced oxidative stress were decreased (p<0.05). In conclusion, our results indicate that treatment of pyracantha root extract may improve in vitro development of porcine parthenogenetic embryos through its antioxidative and antiapoptotic effects.

The key regulators of apoptosis are the interacting protein of the Bcl-2 family. Bcl-2, an important member of this family, blocks cytochrome C release by sequestering pro-apoptotic BH3-only proteins such as Bid, Bad, Bax and Bim. The pro-survival family members (Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, Bcl-W) are critical for cell survival, since loss of any of them causes cell death in certain cell type. However, its role during early porcine embryonic development is not sufficient. In this study, we traced the effects of Bcl-2 inhibitor, ABT-737, on early porcine embryonic development. We also investigated several indicators of developmental potential, including gene expression (apoptosis-related genes) and apoptosis, which are affected by ABT-737. Porcine embryos were cultured in the PZM-3 medium with or without ABT-737 for 6 days. In result, significant differences in developmental potential were detected between the embryos that were cultured with or without ABT-737 (14.7±3.0 vs 30.3±4.8%, p<0.05). TUNEL assay showed that the number of containing fragmented DNA at the blastocyst stage increased in the ABT-737 treated group compared with control (4.7 vs 3.7, p<0.05). The mRNA expression of the pro-apoptotic gene Bax increased in ABT-737 treated group (p<0.05), whereas expressions of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members (Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, Bcl-W) decreased (p<0.05). Also, expressions of the ER stress indicator genes (GRP78, XBP-1 and sXBP-1) increased in ABT-737 treated group (p<0.05). In conclusion, Bcl-2 is closely associated with of apoptosis- and ER stress-related genes expressions and developmental potential in pig embryos.

A strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae BY-366was found to produce a strong sucrose-hydrolyzing enzyme Using this strain, the optimal culture conditions for the production of invertase were investigated. The results are as follows : 1. For enzyme production, optimal temperature, initial pH and critical concentrations of sucrose and raffinose were 30℃, 5.0 and 3.0%, respectively. 2. Enzyme production was reached maxium by organic nitrogen source, 0.3% yeast extract plus 0.5% bactopeptone. 3. It was appeared the presence of 0.1M Mn^2+ and Fe^2+ ion was essential factors, on the other hand, 0.1M Ag^+ and Hg^2+ ion almost block in yeast growth and enzyme production. 4. Invertase productivity was reached maxium within 3days on stationary culture with medium-composed of sucrose 3%, bactopeptone 0.5%, yeast extract 0.3%, K_2HPO_4 0.1%, MgSO4·7H_2O 0.05%.

This investigation revealed not only the women`s actual condition of dietary habits, but also the factors related to the formation of them. The subjects were 400 women at Seoul area. The results were as follows : 1. It was observed that their home descipline, the school education and consciousness were all related to the formation and their dietary habits, and that the practice and experience of preparing meals were most important in order to cultivate their good dietary habits. 2. Actual condition of dietary habits were generally not satisfactory.