Background : Natural Mortality Vinyl much culture are increased crop yield and saved weeding workforce. But research is insufficient that of Liriope Pilatyphylla Wang et Tang. Black non-woven fabric mulch culture are increased crop yield and superior to occurrence of weeds, but to the removal and planting more labor needed, so, Farmers are avoidance using that. Methods and Results : So this study designed in order to selecting the best covering material. Using in this study, covering materials were Conventional practices (non covering), Natural mortality vinyl and black non-woven fabric. Soil temperature was continued highly after planting from in mid-may to in august a regular. among them natural mortality vinyl mulch was the highest. Natural mortality vinyl mulch was the fastest that humidity of soil change and Growth and development situation by maintaining proper temperature and humidity. Non mulching was little change in temperature and humidity and the slowest in the Growth and development situation. The main event of weeds were Cyperus serotinus Rottb and Portulaca oleracea L. Weeding labor was saved from 43 to 57 percent in the natural mortality vinyl and black non-woven fabric mulch. Plant length was the shortest in the conventional practices and Root length, Leaf number and number of plants were little changed. Yield was increased from 27 to 29 percent in the natural mortality vinyl and black non-woven fabric mulch than conventional practices. Result of comprehensive economic analysis including weeding labor and yield, the natural mortality vinyl mulch culture was income increased 92 percent than conventional practices. Conclusion : Natural mortality vinyl mulch culture were weeds shooting controled and increased yield 39, income 92 percent than conventional practices (non covering).

Background : To diversify and increase the demend of Boxthorn, it is breeding for medicinal herbs, food and fresh fruit. Therefore Ningxia with the high sugar content and Black Fruit Containing a lot of functional ingredients have been used for cross breeding. As a result, many new lines were developed. Therefore It was carried out to use as a data for new varieties through the characterization of good lines. Methods and Results : 12 varieties and lines were investigated. Diploid boxthorn were Chengmyeong (Lycium chinense Mill.), Ningxia (Lycium barbarum L.) and Black Fruit (Lycium ruthenicum Murray). Tetraploid boxthorn is Whasu. Breeding Lines were CB13593-8, CB13595-4, CB13592-9, CB13596-1, CB13597-37, CB14643-43, CB14622-2 and CB14626-4. The fruit of lines crossed with Black Fruit (Lycium ruthenicum Murray) were round. The various lines were breeded with black fruit, good fruiting and good soil adaptability. Leaves were small and thin in Compared with tetraploid Boxthorn, Whasu. Sugar content was very high in CB14643-43, CB13595-4, CB13597-37 and CB13593-8. So it’s good for fresh fruit. Conclusion : CB14643-43, CB13595-4, CB13597-37 and CB13593-8 lines were good for fresh fruit because of high sugar content of the fruit. CB14622-2 and CB13596-1 lines were good for food because of fruit color, seed weight and number of seeds. But these are required function component analysis.

Background : Liriope platyphylla Wang et. Tang is a perennial plant and its tuberous root is used as herbal medicine. Liriope platyphylla is grown throughout a year from April to April of next year. Recently, the production was lowered because of severe drought/rainfall and injury by successive cropping. The ridge height affected the growth of shoots and roots as affected by drought or rainfall. It is necessary to establish the cultivation techniques for stable quantity per unit area and good tuber’s quality. This experiment was carried out to select a cultivar of good tuber quality and to determine the ridge height for high-yielding. Methods and Results : It were investigated the characteristics of roots and tubers depending on different ridge heights in four varieties of Liriope platyphylla Wang et. Tang. There was not significantly different in shoot growth by different ridge heights. The tubers distribution in less than 10cm soil depth at the surface was decreased about 6.6% in the 15cm ridge height compared to 5cm. So, the mean distributed position of tubers was deepened at higher ridge. The cultivars that tubers were mainly distributed in the 10cm depth from surface was Seoungsu and Cheongyang natives’s lines. The no. of tubers per a plant and the ratio of marketable tubers were increased about 13.2% and 20.1% in the 15cm ridge height compared to 5cm. Considering the tuber sizes and ratio of marketable tubers, Cheongshim and Maekmundong 1 has good quality than Seoungsu or Cheongyang natives’s lines. The tuber yield increased about 19.5% in the 15cm ridge height compared to the 5cm. So, high ridge was advantaged to increase the yield. Conclusion : From the above results, the quality and quantity of tubers of Liriope platyphylla Wang et. Tang was good in the higher ridge. We recommended Cheongshim cultivar because of the large tuber sizes and high ratio of marketable tubers.

Background : Liriope platyphylla Wang et. Tang is a species of Liliaceae and its tuber is used as medicinal herbs. This medicinal plant is mainly cultivated in Cheongyang and Buyeo of Chungcheongnam-Do and Miryang of Gyeongsangnam-Do. It is necessary to establish a cultivation techniques for stable production to solve the problems that are found on farms. These farm surveys were carried out to obtain the basic data on soil environment and cultivation conditions at main producing areas of Chungnam-Do in Liriope platyphylla Wang et. Tang. Methods and Results : The surveys were investigated from 37 farmers in Cheongyang and 32 farmers in Buyeo who cultivate Liriope platyphylla Wang et. Tang. There were slightly differences in the local characteristics between Cheongyang and Buyeo. The rate of successive cropping for more than 3 years were 19% at Cheongyang and 41% in Buyeo. The reason may be due to the a small-owned field. It has grown 28% at Cheongyang and 59% at Buyeo in paddy fields. The injury by successive cropping that farmers argued were the increasing pest/disease occurrence, degradation of tuber quality and yield reduction. Crops planted after the harvest of L. platyphylla were mostly Pepper or soybean in upland. It is necessary to reduce the injury of successive cropping. The results of 112 soil analysis data were classified by 8 soil series. There are many acidic soil, lack of organic matter, excess phosphate. However, it did not analyzed the influences on the growth and yield of the crop as affected by different soil conditions. Conclusion : From the above results, it is necessary to develop cultivation techniques on the reduction of injury of successive cropping, such as cropping system, seedling transplanting cultivation, cultivation methods for good agricultural practices(GAP) and soil improvement.

Background : Acreage of rain-shelter plastic greenhouse to prevent anthrax is being gradually increased according to growing importance of safe Boxthorn production. But When Boxthorn is grown in the hot season in rain-shelter plastic greenhouse, quantity of Boxthorn decreases. therefore the research was carried out to investigate Fertilization mode. Methods and Results : Chungwoon was very strong self-incompatibility. Chengyangjaerae, Chengyang18 and CBP11542-206 was self-compatibility. Artificial fertilization rate was slightly higher in roof and side vents than in side vents of rain-shelter plastic greenhouse in hot season. Pollen sterility due to high temperature is not critical because artificial fertilization rate was high in side vents of rain-shelter plastic greenhouse in hot season. Airborne fertilization rate was significantly lower in all varieties. Open fertilization rate was higher in roof and side vents than in side vents of rain-shelter plastic greenhouse Conclusion : Roof and side vents was good in compared to side vents in rain-shelter plastic greenhouse of Boxthorn because of high Airborne and open fertilization rate. Self-compatibility varieties were better than self-incompatibility varieties in rain- shelter plastic greenhouse because of high open fertilization rate.

The appearance and physicochemical characteristics of a native jujube (called Yak jujube) and Bokjo jujube were compared in this study. Our results revealed that the native jujube had smaller size, lower hardness, and higher contents of sugar, crude protein, crude fat, crude ash, dietary fiber, and calcium contents, when compared to that of Bokjo jujube. Therefore, native jujube is softer and sweeter, with higher general nutrient content, despite being smaller than that of Bokjo jujube.

Hepatocytes and hepatic progenitors derived from human ES cells may be a useful source for clinical application. Therefore, identification and purification of these cell types would be following important issues. There are very few candidate surface markers that can be used to identify and purify hepatic progenitor cells. In addition, indocyanine-green can be uptaken by mature hepatocytes, but cannot be applied for fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) due to its long emission wavelength. In the present study, we tested EpCAM as a potential marker for magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) of hepatic progenitors and also modified indocyanine-green into fluorescent indomonocarbocyanine for FACS-mediated sorting of mature hepatocytes after differentiation of human ES cells. Hepatic progenitor cells were sorted by MACS after incubation with anti-human EpCAM antibodies. After the final differentiation, the differentiated cells and mouse primary hepatocytes (control group) were incubated with indomonocarbocyanine and were sorted by FACS. MACS and immunocytochemistry data showed that approximately 45% of differentiated cells were EpCAM-positive cells. EpCAM-positive cells expressed α-fetoprotein, FOXa2, HnF4a, and CK18. Differentiation efficiency into albumin-positive cells was significantly higher in EpCAM-positive cells, compared to EpCAM-negative cells. Importantly, indomonocarbocyanine successfully stained cells that expressed ALB. Furthermore, FACS analysis data showed that the purity of hepatocytes that expressed albumin was significantly increased after purification of indomonocarbocyanine-positive cells. Our data demonstrated that human ES cell-derived hepatic progenitors can be efficiently isolated by MACS using EpCAM antibody. In addition, we also showed that indomonocarbocyanine can be successfully used to identify and purify mature hepatocytes using FACS.

Highly homogeneous and functional stem cell-derived hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) are considered a promising option in the treatment of liver disease and the development of effective in vitro toxicity screening tool. However, the purity of cells and expression and/or activity of drug metabolizing enzymes in stem cell-derived HLCs are usually too low to be useful for clinical or in vitro applications. Here, we describe a highly optimized differentiation protocol, which produces more than 90% albumin-positive HLCs with no purification process. In addition, we show that hepatic enzyme gene expressions and activities were significantly improved by generating three-dimensional (3D) spheroidal aggregate of HLCs. The 3D differentiation method increased expressions of nuclear receptors that regulate the proper expression of key hepatic enzymes. Furthermore, a significantly increased hepatic functions such as albumin and urea secretion were observed in 3D hepatic spheroids and HLCs in the spheroid exhibited morphological and ultrastructural features of normal hepatocytes. Importantly, we show that repeated exposures to xenobiotics facilitated the functional maturation of HLC, as confirmed by increased expression of genes for drug metabolizing enzymes and transcription factors. In conclusion, the 3D culture system with repeated exposures to xenobiotics may be a new strategy for enhancing hepatic maturation of stem cell-derived HLCs as a cell source for in vitro high-throughput hepatotoxicity models.

Hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) derived from human pluripotent stem cells have received extensive attention in the development of drug screening and toxicity testing. However, it has been reported that stem cell-derived HLCs showed hepatic functions that were too limited to be of use in drug screening and toxicity testing, possibly due to the lack of sufficient intercellular communication under conventional two-dimensional (2D) culture conditions. Therefore, a 3D differentiation system may overcome the in vitro limitation of 2D culture to produce stem cell-derived hepatocytes with mature metabolic functions. In this study, the feasibility of using a silicone-based spherofilm, specifically designed to produce spherical cell clusters, to generate uniformly sized 3D hepatic spheroids from hESCs was investigated. Hepatic spheroids generated on the spherofilm showed more homogenous size and shape than those generated in conventional low-attachment suspension culture dishes. Results of immunohistochemical analysis showed that expression of the mature hepatic marker albumin (ALB) increased over time during the hepatic maturation process. Furthermore, the 3D culture system mimicked the in vivo 3D microenvironment. Laminin, which is an important component of hepatic ECM, was expressed in hepatic spheroids. The results of immunohistochemical analysis indicated that the 3D culture environment is capable of generating an in vivo-like microenvironment. In addition, quantitative PCR analysis showed that the mature hepatic marker ALB and cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes CYP3A4 and CYP3A7 were expressed at higher levels in 3D culture than in 2D culture. This indicates that the 3D culture system is suitable for hepatic maturation and that our size-controlled 3D culture conditions might accelerate hepatic function. These results suggest that 3D hepatic spheroids significantly enhance metabolic maturation of hepatocytes derived from hESCs

May-Thurner syndrome is associated with deep vein thrombosis resulting from chronic compression of the iliac vein against the lumbar vertebrae caused by the overlying common iliac artery. Stent insertion into the compressed lesion is used in treatment of May-Thurner syndrome. Various complications can occur during angioplasty while using a stent. Among these complications, shrinkage of the vein below the stent, a rare complication, was observed in our hospital during treatment of a patient with May-Thurner syndrome. Different complications can occur when venous angioplasty is performed, unlike that when arterial angioplasty is performed.

MFG-E8 (Milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor VIII), also called lactadherin or BA46, SED1 is a glycoprotein found in milk and mammary epithelial cells, it is a major protein component associated with milk fat globule membrane. Previously, our study showed that expression of MFG-E8 is gradually increased with hepatic differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Therefore, we hypothesized that MFG-E8 would be an early cancer stem cell marker, which may predict cancer progression. Our results showed that MFG-E8 was expressed in various human cancer cell lines such as HepG2, Hep3B, and Huh7. Production and secretion of the MFG-E8 were also confirmed in the conditioned media of those three cell lines using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Next, we analyzed the MFG-E8 expression in 11 clinical cases of cholangiocellular carcinoma (CC) and 33 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by immunohistochemistry and examined the potential correlation with β-catenin and AFP, which are known cancer markers. According to hitological criteria, the progression of HCC and CC was evaluated and classified into high, low, metastatic, and well-, moderate-, poor-differentiated, respectively. Statistical analysis indicated that incidence of both HCC and CC is significantly associated with male compared to female (P<0.05). Tumor size also has positive correlation with age (r2=08948). Our immunohistochemistry data showed that MFG-E8 was expressed both HCC and CC tissue. Interestingly, the MFG-E8 expression was significantly increased with cancer progression (P<0.05) in both cases. Additionally, b-cateninexpression was increased and its localization was changed from membrane to cytoplasm and nucleus with the degree of HCC. Likely b-catenin, AFP was also increased with the degree of HCC but it was not correlated with severalty of CC. Importantly, both AFP and b-catenin were highly co-localized with MFG-E8 in HCC. These results suggest that MFG-E8 may have important physiological roles and its expression in HCC and CC would be considered as an important prognostic factor.

Compared to wide ranges of genetic variation of natural populations, very limited Miscanthus cultivar has been released. This study was the first report on the development of Miscanthus cultivar by means of radiation breeding. Seeds of M. sinensis were initially exposed to gamma rays of 250 Gy for 24 h, generated from a 60Co gamma-irradiator. The irradiated seeds were sown and then the highly tiller-producing mutants were selected for this study. Biomass-related parameters including tiller number, plant height, stem diameter, and leaf number were measured. Ploidy level and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) were investigated to characterize the mutants compared to wild type (WT) Miscanthus. Plant height and tiller number were negatively related, where multi-tillering mutants were relatively short after 4 month growth. However stem diameter and leaf number were greater in mutants. All the materials used in this study were diploid, implying that the mutants with greater tiller numbers and stem diameter were not likely related to polyploidization. Based on the sequence of ITS regions, the mutants demonstrated base changes from the gamma irradiation where G+C content (%) was decreased in the ITS1, but increased in ITS2 when compared to WT sequence. ITS2 region was more variable than in ITS1 in the mutants, which collectively allows identification of the mutants from WT. Those mutants having enhanced tillers and allelic variations might be used as breeding materials for enhanced biomass-producing Miscanthus cultivars.

Influences of different seeding dates on growth, seed yield, fatty acid composition and oil content were investigated in flax plants for two years. The results indicated that plant height in early seeding date was higher than that of delayed seeding dates during first season. Furthermore, seeding date also significantly affected the ripened seed rate and the rate increased with the delay in seeding date in first season. Seed yield in the first crop season was significantly higher than the second crop season. Palmitic acid showed variation in different seeding dates. Contrarily, stearic acid was stable and did not changed by different seeding dates. Linolenic acid was found in highest amount in all seeding dates consecutively in two cropping years. Highest oil content was recovered from the seeds of flax sown at 29 Apr. and May 9 in first and second cropping year respectively.

Estrogens are ubiquitous signaling molecules that influence nearly every cell type, and exert profound effects on embryonic development, and differentiation. Wnt pathway, which recruits β-catenin into nuclei, and activates The Wnt-dependent transcription factors, also plays an important role in embryonic development and stem cell maintenance, and differentiation. Accumulating evidences indicate that potential convergence between these two pathways in carcinoma cells. However, physiological roles of estrogens in development and differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are relatively unknown. Here, we demonstrated that estrogenic compounds 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) and genistein (GEN) significantly increased β-catenin expression in undifferentiated hESCs cultured in feeder-free media. Interestingly, GEN treatement induced an increased trend of mesendodermal gene expressions, and significantly inhibited ectodermal gene expressions (Nestin and Pax6) in embrioid body (EB). Expectantly, GEN increased epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) related gene expression (Snail2, and Twist), whereas decreased E-cadherin on day 6 of EB development. Taken together, these suggest that estrogens may in part the powerful effects on normal hESC differentiation. Mechanistic studies of estrogen signaling continue to suggest novel drug targets for stem cells and will also improve screening methods of developmental toxicity.