본 연구는 기능성 음료에 대한 인식 및 구매실태를 조사함으로써 기능성 음료의 구매와 섭취 시 기능성 음료에 대한 지침서 및 영양교육 자료의 기초자료를 제공하고자 한다. 기능성 음료의 구입 실태, 구입 경험, 인식, 섭취빈도 및 태도 등을 조사하였다. 1. 조사대상자 중 남자는 183명(51.7%), 여자는 171명(48.3%)이었고, 연령은 20대가 146명(41.2%), 30대가 81명(22.9%), 40대가 69명(19.5%), 50대 이상이 58명(16.4%)이었다. 그중 기혼자는 182명(51.4%), 미혼자는 172명(48.6%)이었다. 2. 최근 한 달 동안 기능성 음료 구입 여부는 조사대상자의 82.8%(293명)가 기능성 음료를 구입하였다. 3. 기능성 음료를 구입하는 이유는 남자는 ‘피로회복’이 43.1%, ‘갈증해소’가 21.6%, ‘건강증진’이 19.6%, ‘영양보충’이 15%, ‘다이어트’가 7% 순으로 나타났으며, 여자는 ‘피로회복’이 28.6%, ‘건강증진’이 26.4%, ‘갈증해소’가 22.1%, ‘영양보충’이 12.9%, ‘다이어트’가 10% 순으로 조사되어 유의한 차이를 보였다(p<0.005). 새로운 기능성 음료의 대한 정보습득 경로는 미혼은 매장방문(47.9%)을 통해서 기혼은 주변사람(43.0%)을 통해 얻는다고 응답하여 유의한 차이를 보였다(p<0.001). 기능성 음료의 구입 장소는 미혼은 편의점(46.5%)에서, 기혼은 대형마트(29.5%)에서 가장 많이 구입하는 것으로 나타나 유의한 차이를 보였다(p<0.001). 기능성 음료 구입 시 영향을 주는 요인은 ‘제조일자(M=4.25)’, ‘원재료 함량(M=4.17)’, ‘영양표시(M=4.15)’, ‘원산지(M=4.13)’, ‘가격(M=4.13)’, ‘맛’(M=3.96), ‘상표’(M=3.62), ‘향’(M=3.55), ‘색(M=3.24)’ 순으로 나타났으며, 여자가 남자보다 모든 항목에 대해 영향을 받는 것으로 나타났다. 월평균 기능성 음료 구입 비용은 20대는 ‘1만 원 이하’가 50.9%, 30대는 ‘2~5만 원’이 42.6%, 40대는 ‘2~5만 원’이 42.4%, ‘50대 이상은 ‘11만 원 이상’이 40.4%로 나타나 유의한 차이를 보였다(p<0.001). 4. 기능성 음료 섭취빈도를 분석한 결과, 에너지음료는 여자보다 남자가 많이 섭취하는 것으로 나타났다(p<0.001). 홍삼 음료는 50대 이상의 연령층에서 주 1~2회 섭취가 44.2%로 높았으며(p<0.001), 미혼보다 기혼이 홍삼 음료를 많이 섭취하는 것으로 나타났다(p<0.001). 여자보다 남자가 비타민 음료를 많이 섭취하였고(p<0.005), 건강원 음료는 50대 이상의 연령층에서 주 3~4회 섭취가 28.8%로 가장 높았으며, 기혼이 미혼보다 섭취빈도가 높았다(p<0.001). 기능성 음료를 섭취하는 시기는 ‘평상시’가 42.3%로 가장 많았고, ‘일할때’ 27.0%, ‘식사 전후’ 16.7%, ‘운동 전후’ 14.0% 순으로 조사 되었다. 기능성 음료 섭취 후 남자는 피로회복의 효과를 인지하였으며, 여자는 다이어트 미용이나 공복감 해소, 변비 개선에 효과를 인지하였다. 연구결과를 고려할 때, 소비자의 올바른 기능성 음료의 구매와 섭취를 위하여 소비자가 스스로 선택할 수 있도록 기능성에 대한 명확한 정보전달이 필요할 것으로 사료된다. 또한, 기능성 음료의 내용 영양소함량에 따른 상한섭취량과 과잉 및 부적절한 섭취로 건강상의 문제에 대한 영양교육이 필요할 것으로 생각된다. 조사대상자의 기능성 음료에 대한 정보 습득경로로는 기사검색과 웹서핑 및 스마트폰 이용이 주가 되고 있다. 따라서, 앞으로의 영양교육은 인쇄물 교육보다는 앱이나 인터넷(배너) 광고 등을 통한 교육의 활성화가 바람직하다고 판단된다.

SiC-based composite materials with light weight, high durability, and high-temperature stability have been actively studied for use in aerospace and defense applications. Moreover, environmental barrier coating (EBC) technologies using oxide-based ceramic materials have been studied to prevent chemical deterioration at a high temperature of 1300℃ or higher. In this study, an ytterbium silicate material, which has recently been actively studied as an environmental barrier coating because of its high-temperature chemical stability, is fabricated on a sintered SiC substrate. Yb2O3 and SiO2 are used as the raw starting materials to form ytterbium disilicate (Yb2Si2O7). Suspension plasma spraying is applied as the coating method. The effect of the mixing method on the particle size and distribution, which affect the coating formation behavior, is investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. It is found that the originally designed compounds are not effectively formed because of the refinement and vaporization of the raw material particles, i.e., SiO2, and the formation of a porous coating structure. By changing the coating parameters such as the deposition distance, it is found that a denser coating structure can be formed at a closer deposition distance.

The coupling of autophagy and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been implicated in a variety of biological processes. However, little is known regarding the involvement of the autophagy/ER stress pathway in early embryogenesis or the underlying mechanism (s). Here, we showed that the developmental competence of in vitro-produced (IVP) bovine embryos was highly dependent on the autophagy/ER stress balance. Although relative abundances of autophagy-associated gene transcripts, including LC3, Atg5, and Atg7 transcripts, were high in oocytes and throughout the early stages of preattachment development, extensive autophagosome formation was only detected in fertilized embryos. Using inducer and inhibitor of autophagy, we showed that transient elevation of autophagic activity during early preattachment development greatly increased the blastocyst development rate, trophectoderm cell numbers, and blastomere survival; these same parameters were reduced by both inhibition and prolonged induction of autophagy. Interestingly, the induction of autophagy reduced ER stress and associated damage, while the developmental defects in autophagy-inhibited embryos were significantly alleviated by ER stress inhibitor treatment, indicating that autophagy is a negative regulator of ER stress inearly embryos. Collectively, these results suggest that early embryo genesis of IVP bovine embryos depends on an appropriate balance between autophagy and ER stress. These findings may increase our understanding of important early developmental events by providing compelling evidence concerning the tight association between autophagy and ER stress, and may contribute to the development of strategies for the production of IVP bovine blastocysts with high developmental competence.

Autophagy is known to be involved in a variety of biological processes. However, relatively a little is known regarding oocyte maturation and preimplantation development in mammals. Thus, the current study was conducted to investigate the role of autophagy in oocyte maturation and subsequent preimplantation development in pigs. Porcine oocytes were matured in the presence or absence of 1 μM rapamycin, an autophagy inducing agent, fertilized in vitro, and cultured to blastocyst stage. From Western blotting analysis, we found that active form LC3 was detected during in vitro maturation (IVM) period, suggesting the possible role of autophagy in oocyte maturation. Interestingly, treatment of rapamycin during IVM significantly increased nuclear maturation compared to control group. Importantly, rapamycin-assisted IVM greatly improved monospermic fertilization and blastocyst development rates compared to control embryos. In addition, we also found that cell number and blastomere survival in blastocysts were markedly increased in rapamycin treatment group, which was further evidenced by both elevation of anti-apoptotic transcript Bcl-XL and decrease of pro-apoptotic transcript Bax. Collectively, these results strongly suggest that induction of autophagy may contribute to the completion of nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation of porcine oocytes.

Despite of the presence of estradiol-17β (E2) in ovarian follicles, its role(s) in in vitro maturation (IVM) is still largely unknown, especially in pigs. Thus, the current study was conducted to investigate the effect of E2 on in vitro maturation (IVM) of porcine oocytes and subsequent preimplantation development using in vitro fertilization (IVF)- or somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)-derived embryos. To define the effects of E2 on IVM and early embryogenesis, porcine oocytes were matured in the presence or absence of E2, fertilized in vitro and cultivated to blastocyst stage. Compared to control group, the production of MII oocytes was significantly increased by treatment with E2, accompanying with the increase in MPF content and ERK phosphorylation, and monospermic fertilization and blastocyst development rates were also greatly elevated in the E2-treated oocytes. In addition, the advantageous role of E2 was also found in blastomere survival, which was further evidenced by both elevation of anti-apoptotic transcript Bcl-XL and decrease of pro-apoptotic transcript Bax. Furthremore, these positive effects of E2 were highly reproducible in early development of SCNT embryos. Collectively, the current study strongly suggests that E2 can be used as a efficient IVM supplement leading to successful nuclear/cytoplasmic maturatioin in pigs.

Successful early embryogenesis of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos is very important to produce cloned animals. However, poor preimplantation development of SCNT embryos has been a major obstacle to the generation of cloned animals due to a lack of understanding of developmental events and underlying mechanism(s). In the current study, we show that production of SCNT embryos with high developmental competence is dependent on the fusion method. Electrofusion causes spontaneous egg activation, accompanied by an increase in intracellular Ca2+ and improper nuclear remodeling, whereas Sendai virus (SV)-mediated fusion greatly reduces these events. In addition, SV-SCNT increased the blastocyst development rate and trophectoderm cell number compared to electrofusion-mediated SCNT (E-SCNT). In particular, expression of ER stress-associated genes and blastomere apoptosis were significantly increased in E-SCNT embryos, which could be alleviated by inhibition of ER stress or by using the SV-mediated fusion method. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that SV is a useful fusion material for improvement of preimplantation development of SCNT embryos through reduction of ER stress-associated apoptosis.