The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of trisaccharides supplementation in glycerol-free tris (GFT) for the cryopreservation of dog spermatozoa. In the first experiment (E1), dog spermatozoa were resuspended with 50, 75, 100 or 125 mM of raffinose, melezitose or maltotriose and cooled at 4 ℃ for 10 min. To determine the effect of different cooling time, the spermatozoa resuspended with 100 mM of raffinose, melezitose or maltotriose were cooled during 10, 20, 30 or 40 min at 4 ℃ (second experiment; E2). The straws were then aligned horizontally for 10 min on the rack and then plunged into LN2. In the third experiment (E3), to determine the effect of different vapor freezing time, the spermatozoa resuspended with 100 mM raffinose were cooled at 4 ℃ for 20 min and frozen in LN2 for 5, 10, 15 or 20 min and then plunged into LN2. In the fourth experiment (E4), to compare different freezing methods [cooling plus vapor freezing (CV), cooling plus step-down freezing (CS) and direct step-down freezing (SD)], the spermatozoa resuspended with 100 mM raffinose were cooled for 20 min and frozen in LN2 vapor for 5 min in case of CV method. In case of CS method, spermatozoa were cooled for 20 min at 4℃ and then frozen by the step-down freezing method. The straws were then aligned horizontally at 18, 15, 5, and 2 cm respectively from the surface of LN2 for 1, 1, 1.4, and 5 min, respectively in an L shaped straw holder and then plunged into LN2. For SD method, the straws were directly aligned horizontally at the same levels as CS from the surface of LN2 for 1, 1, 1.9, and 5 min, respectively and then plunged into LN2. After thawing at 37℃ for 25 sec, the spermatozoa were then incubated for 30 min in the freezing extender (E1) or in the 50 mM sucrose supplemented GFT (E2, E3, and E4) at 24℃. Following post-thaw incubation, sperm progressive motility and viability were assessed in E1, E2, E3, and E4. In addition, acrosome integrity, and gene expression related to apoptosis (BAX, BCL2, and Caspase10) and sperm motility (SMCP) were evaluated in E4. The results demonstrated that, in E1, using 75 mM trisaccharides resulted in significantly (p<0.05) higher sperm motility in all sugar groups. Using 100 mM melezitose significantly (p<0.05) improved the post-thaw viability than the 100 mM raffinose. The viability in 100 mM maltotriose was similar with 100 mM raffinose and melezitose group. In E2, the different cooling time has no significant effect on post-thaw sperm progressive motility in all the sugar types. In addition, the viability was variable among the different groups. In E3, liquid nitrogen vapor freezing for 5 min resulted in improved motility and viability. The sperm progressive motility was significantly (p<0.05) higher in CV and SD group compared to CS group and the sperm viability was significantly (p<0.05) higher in CV group compared to the other groups in E4. However, the acrosomal integrity of spermatozoa in the group CV was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the group CS and SD. In addition, the expression of SMCP gene was significantly (p<0.05) higher in the CV group than the CS group. In contrast, the expression of Caspase10 significantly (p<0.05) lower in the group CV and SD than the group CS. Furthermore, the ratio of gene expression of BAX and BCL2 was significantly (p<0.05) lower in the group CV than the group CS. Therefore, cryopreservation of dog spermatozoa in 100 mM of raffinose supplemented GFT cooled for 20 min and vapor freezing for 5 min provides better progressive sperm motility, viability, and acrosome integrity with higher expression of SMCP gene and lower expression of caspase10 and BAX/BCL2 ratio following post-thaw incubation in 50 mM sucrose supplemented GFT for 30 min at 24℃.

The aim of this study was to develop a chemically defined extender for dog sperm cryopreservation by supplementation of essential and non-essential amino acids solution in EY-free PVA extender. Spermatozoa collected from mature dogs (1 ｘ 108 cell/ml) were frozen with EY-free extender supplemented with 0 (control), 1, 2, 4 % essential amino acids (EAAs) or 1, 2, 4 % non-essential amino acids (NEAAs). Sperm progressive motility, viability and acrosome integrity were evaluated immediately after thawing at 37 ℃ for 25 s and post-thaw incubation at room temperature for 20 min. In addition, to evaluate the synergistic effect of EAAs and NEAAs, spermatozoa were frozen with 0, 0.5, 1 or 2 % EAAs-NEAAs mixture (v:v). Sperm progressive motility, viability and acrosome integrity were evaluated immediately after thawing and post-thaw incubation. Additionally, spermatozoa were frozen using EY-free PVA extender supplemented with 2 % EAAs, 2 % NEAAs or 0.5 % EAAs-NEAAs mixture. The ROS level and phosphatidylserine (PS) translocation (Annexin V-FITC assay) were assessed using flow cytometry. In addition, gene expression level for SMCP (motility-related), apoptosis-related BCL2 and BAX was measured after freezing-thawing. The progressive motility of spermatozoa cryopreserved in EAAs or NEAAs significantly increased (P < 0.05) in all groups compared to the control group regardless of thawing conditions. In addition, 1 % NEAAs significantly protected the acrosome membrane of spermatozoa after freezing-thawing (P < 0.05). However, EAAs has shown no significant effect on viability and acrosome membrane integrity of spermatozoa. On the other hand, addition of EAAs-NEAAs mixture to EY-free PVA extender significantly (P < 0.05) increased sperm progressive motility without any effect on viability. Supplementation of 0.5 % EAAs-NEAAs mixture significantly (P < 0.05) increased the expression level of SMCP, BCL2 and BAX compared to control without significant effect on PS translocation and ROS level. We conclude that essential and non-essential amino acids solution can be effectively used in EY-free extender to improve sperm motility, acrosome integrity and gene expression of SMCP and BCL2 in dog sperm cryopreservation.

Activated carbons (ACs) were prepared by activation of coal tar pitch (CTP) in the range of 700°C-1000°C for 1-4 h using potassium hydroxide (KOH) powder as the activation agent. The optimal activation conditions were determined to be a CTP/KOH ratio of 1:4, activation temperature of 900°C, and activation time of 3 h. The obtained ACs showed increased pore size distribution in the range of 1 to 2 nm and the highest specific capacitance of 122 F/g in a two-electrode system with an organic electrolyte, as measured by a charge-discharge method in the voltage range of 0-2.7 V. In order to improve the performance of the electric double-layer capacitor electrode, various mixtures of CTP and petroleum pitch (PP) were activated at the optimal activation conditions previously determined for CTP. Although the specific capacitance of AC electrodes prepared from CTP only and the mixtures of CTP and PP was not significantly different at a current density of 1 A/g, the AC electrodes from CTP and PP mixtures showed outstanding specific capacitance at higher current rates. In particular, CTP-PP61 (6:1 mixture) had the highest specific capacitance of 132 F/g, and the specific capacitance remained above 90% at a high current density of 3 A/g. It was found that the high specific capacitance could be attributed to the increased micro-pore volume of ACs with pore sizes from 1 to 2 nm, and the high power density could be attributed to the increased meso-pore volume.

Purpose: This study is aimed at developing Self-Efficacy Inventory of tennis players. Methods: Inventory composed in this manner was applied to 328 tennis players in middle and high schools, universities and professional teams registered with the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee. Various analysis including statistical data, exploratory factor, confirmatory factor and reliability analysis were performed on the basis of the data collected by using SPSS and AMOS. Moreover, confirmatory factor analysis and prediction validity for which the developed index differs in accordance with gender and affiliation were performed. Results: A total of 3 questions were deleted because kurtosis/skewedness was not appropriate in descriptive statistics. As the result of exploratory factory analysis, there was 61.58% dispersion of single factory. As the result of confirmatory factory analysis, appropriateness of structure was confirmed and all the path coefficients with the range of .626~.834 were found to be significant. Therefore, the index for the self-efficacy of tennis player was developed with 10 single factor questions and proportional index in the range of 0-100%. Validity and reliability were also secured. In addition, it demonstrated that self-efficacy can be used in the actual field of tennis by significantly predicting the perceived competition performances and execution of sports. Conclusion: It can be utilized as a useful tool in predicting the self-efficacy of tennis players. It is deemed that there is a need to assess the effects of tennis player and self-efficacy by investigating the relationship among a diverse range of sports variables with the inventory developed in this Study in the future.

The initial and boundary conditions are important factors in regional chemical transport modeling systems. The method of generating the chemical boundary conditions for regional air quality models tends to be different from the dynamically varying boundary conditions in global chemical transport models. In this study, the impact of real time Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service (CAMS) re-analysis data from the modeling atmospheric composition and climate project interim implementation (MACC) on the regional air quality in the Korean Peninsula was carried out using the community multi-scale air quality modeling system (CMAQ). A comparison between conventional global data and CAMS for numerical assessments was also conducted. Although the horizontal resolution of the CAMS re-analysis data is not higher than the conventionally provided data, the simulated particulate matter (PM) concentrations with boundary conditions for CAMS re-analysis is more reasonable than any other data, and the estimation accuracy over the entire Korean peninsula, including the Seoul and Daegu metropolitan areas, was improved. Although an inland area such as the Daegu metropolitan area often has large uncertainty in PM prediction, the level of improvement in the prediction for the Daegu metropolitan area is higher than in the coastal area of the western part of the Korean peninsula.