A pregnancy diagnosis is an important standard for control of livestock’s reproduction in paricular dairy cattle. High reproductive performance in dairy animals is a essential condition to realize of high life-time production. Pregnancy diagnosis is crucial to shortening the calving interval by enabling the farmer to identify open animals so as to treat or re-breed them at the earliest opportunity. MicroRNAs are short RNA molecules which are critically involved in regulating gene expression during both health and disease. This study is sought to establish the feasible of circulating miRNAs as biomarkers of early pregnancy in cattle. We applied Illumina small-RNA sequencing to profile miRNAs in plasma samples collected from 12 non-pregnant cows (“open” cows: samples were collected before insemination (non-pregnant state) and after pregnancy check at the indicated time points) on weeks 0, 4, 8, 12 and 16. Using small RNA sequencing we identified a total of 115 miRNAs that were differentially expressed weeks 16 relative to non-pregnancy (“open” cows). Weeks 8, 12 and 16 of pregnancy commonly showed a distinct increase in circulating levels of miR-221 and miR-320a. Through genome-wide analyses we have successfully profiled plasma miRNA populations associated with pregnancy in cattle. Their application in the field of reproductive biology has opened up opportunities for research communities to look for pregnancy biomarker molecules in dairy cattle.

In this study, the effects of heat-moisture treatment (boiling or steaming for 45 min) prior to hot air drying (70 o C for 8 h) on water activity (Aw), moisture (MC), Brix, color, and texture of dried sweet potato slices were investigated to identify the best pretreatment condition for producing dried sweet potato with the best eating quality. Dried sweet potato slices pretreated by boiling (BL) showed significantly lower Aw, MC, and hardness while Brix was significantly higher than with steaming (ST) treatment. There were no significant differences for the color, springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, and brittleness indexes. At 8 h drying, the Aw, MC, Brix, and hardness of the BL and ST samples were 0.81 and 0.82, 19.71% and 25.53%, 53.80% and 49.40%, and 20.49 kg/cm 2 and 31.98 kg/ cm 2 , respectively. This information will be useful for manufacturers in the production of dried sweet potato slices. These findings provide evidence of the feasibility of heat-moisture treatments in the production of dried sweet potato.

Particulate matter (PM) has recently been considered one of the most harmful air pollutants to public health. Plants have been known to degrade and deposit particle pollutants with epicuticular wax (EW), and this capacity can be influenced by environmental conditions including relative humidity (RH). The present study examined the effects of RH on EW generation and PM deposition upon leaf surfaces within Asplenium nidus ‘Avis’. The plants were treated in growth chambers with two levels of RH (low: 30% - 40% and high: 80% - 90%) for a period of four weeks, and subsequently exposed to a 30 μg･m-3 concentration of TiO2 particles as a PM resource for 72 hours. The EW ultrastructure on the leaf surface was observed as the thin films type, which was not morphologically changed in the condition of low or high RH treatment. For four weeks of RH treatment, the fresh weight and leaf area per plant were not significant between low and high RH treatment, while dry weight was significantly higher in the high RH condition. We also found that greater amounts of EW per fresh weight, dry weight and leaf area were generated in high RH. However, the total amounts of PM deposition (surface PM + in-wax PM) of the plants were higher within the low RH treatment with a higher proportion of surface PM. In contrast the proportion of in-wax PM was 15% higher within the high RH. These results suggest that EW generation is affected by air humidity and that proportion of PM deposition in the EW layer were influenced by the amount of total wax load.

본 연구는 제비동자꽃의 대량번식을 위한 효과적인 발아 조건을 선발하고자 수행되었다. 제비동자꽃 종자는 저온습윤 처리(5°C, 0, 4, 8, 12, 16주), GA3 처리(0, 500, 1000mg･L-1), 프라이밍 처리(0.1M, 0.2M의 NH4NO3, K2HPO4, KCl, KNO3)를 하였다. 모든 종자는 25°C, 12시간 광조건(40μmol･m-2 ･s-1)에 서 발아 실험이 진행되었으며, GA3 처리구는 비닐온실(평균 23.4°C)에서도 비교실험이 진행되었다. 저온습윤 8주 처리구 에서 20.4%로 가장 높은 발아율을 나타냈으며, 12주 이상의 저온습윤 처리는 오히려 제비동자꽃의 발아율을 감소시켰다. GA3 0, 500, 1000mg･L-1 처리된 종자는 25°C에서 각각 3.3, 44.0, 62.0%, 비닐온실에서 각각 5.3, 16.7, 42% 발아하였다. 제비동자꽃 종자는 GA3 농도가 높아질수록 발아율이 증가하였다. 또한 제비동자꽃 종자는 0.2M KNO3-프라이밍 처리구에서 가장 높은 발아율(54.7%)을 나타냈으며, 평균발아소요일수는 처리 간 유의성을 보이지 않았다. 이상의 결과로 효과적인 제비종자꽃 종자 번식을 위한 전처리 조건으로 24시간 GA3 1000mg･L-1 침지 처리 또는 0.2M-KNO3 프라이밍 처리를 추천한다.

This article reports on a classroom-based study that examined the effects of direct focused and unfocused written corrective feedback (WCF) on the accuracy development of the past hypothetical conditional (e.g., If I had had money, I would have bought a new computer.) and the indefinite article (a/an). The study employed a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design with two feedback treatment sessions. Six intermediate classes, a total of 108 college freshmen at a university in Korea and two native English speaking instructors, participated in the study. The classes were assigned into a focused WCF group, an unfocused WCF group, and a control group. A text-reconstruction task was used as a writing material and a test instrument. The results revealed that both focused and unfocused WCF groups outperformed the control group in the accuracy gains of both target forms. When the relative effects of two types of feedback were considered, there was no difference in the contribution focused and unfocused WCF made for the accuracy improvement of the hypothetical conditional. However, focused WCF was more beneficial than unfocused WCF for the development of the indefinite article.