• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.44
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• pp.76-107
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• 2008

The present study has explored the effects of media use on the evaluation of the presidential candidate's morality. We hypothesized that the perception of the candidates' morality during the 2007 Korean President Election would be influenced by the amount of the different types of media use. Using a set of panel data, a total of 1,199 citizens (584 females (48.7%), 615 males (51.3%), Mage=42.77, SDage=13.34) were assessed four times from August to December in 2007. The results indicated that (a) the level of TV use for political information, the level of newspaper use for political information, and the level of Internet use for political information increased during the five months; (b) the initial level of political involvement contributed differently to the initial levels of media use; (c) the initial level of political involvement negative influenced the initial level of TV use for political information; (d) the growth of political involvement positively influenced the growth of TV use for political information; (e) the intial level of TV use for political information increased both the initial levels of the perception of candidates' morality and the change of the perception of candidates' morality; (f) the change of TV use for political information negatively affected the perception of candidates' morality; and (g) the initial level of Internet use for political information negatively affected the initial level of the perception of candidates' morality, and the change of Internet use for political information negatively affected the perception of candidates' morality.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.1-18
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• 1990

This is a study which attempt to analyze changing patierns of economic active popu-lation, t o estimato- future patterns, and exa- mine vartons problems arises by changing c ire u mst ances of t he labor force market in- clunging soici al, economic ic, heathl th and demoi-graph ic aspects. We have constructed series of wotking life table which are useful in syt uiolyioig the lirocess of growth and structural change of labor force. Work i ng life tables represent ihie life eyele of econrmic' activity in hi ypothetical cohorts, that is. gen-erat i on of men Sn bject at eat' b period ot f their lives th given ra to's o mor tali it y and of par-- tici pation in economic activities. The tabloes prot' ide measorues of the alvet'age he ng t able of economically aeti \- e life. and agespecific rates of en trannee' into and retirement from the hahn' force. In const routing working life tables, age-specific activity rates and life tabole popula- titoto which represents contemporary condi-tions of moortality in Korea au'e the basic' maltoerials. We have derived the age-specific rates foorm economically active population survey, whoich were conducted by the Bureau of Statistics, Economic Planning Borard of the Korean government. Working life tables are constructed for men wtable these materi- als in the year of 1970, 1980 and 1988 by a modified Wolfbein-Wool's method. Some of the findings may be summerized as follow : 1) A central part of constructing working life table is calculation of stationary' economic active population, which represents the number of men in the stationtary population extoected to be in the labor force at each age group in the life span. The stationary economic active population by age have generally a universal pattern, where they rise sharply in the early twenties, approach its' peak in the thirties decline thereafter. at first graolually and then more rapidly at an advanced age. Korean men show the same general pa ttern of age distribution of stationary eco-- nomic active population with sharp increase hegining from the age interval of 20 to 24, reaching to maximum level at older age. The population. however, presumably, increased substantially due to increaseing school atte endance rates. Another difference exiSts in the youngest age groups, that is the activity rate in the year of 1988 is lower than that of Japan. The table shows an analysis of changes in the age distrihution of labor force between 1970, 1980 and 1988. 2) It was shown an analysis of changes in the age distribution and cause of separation from labor force. The entrance rate to labor force has increased from 18~\5 persons to 299 persons per 1000 head of stationary population between that of 1980 than that of 1988 for Korean men in 20~24 age group. The entrace rate to labor force shows a rapid entrance appearance concentrated on the 15~24 age group. The separation rate from labor force by retirment in Korea in the year of 1988 shows a great difference of the about four times as much as that of Japan. 3) The functions of table illustrate the patterns of working life of males in Korea in 1970, 1980 and 1988. The average remaining number of economically active years, e at age 15 in 1988 is 46.39 which is 2.12 years of increase compared with that of at age 15 in 1970,1980 and 1988 are 43.90,44.27 and 46.39 respectively, showing steadily increase dur- ing the past double decade the increase in the length of economically active life various age may be considered to have come both from extention of general life expectancy and from increasing entrance rate to economic activity in high age that of working is far greater in 1988 than that of 1980. The gaps between expectation of life and average remaining years of economically active widened due to rapid improvement of mortality level in Ko- rea. This observation together with the population pressure by the appearance of a group of younger population implies that constant increase of economically inactive population among older age group.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.1-13
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• 2007

In this research, we found out that bridging nodes have great effect on the robustness of protein-protein interaction networks. Until now, many researchers have focused on node's degree as node's essentiality. Hub nodes in the scale-free network are very essential in the network robustness. Some researchers have tried to relate node's essentiality with node's betweenness centrality. These approaches with betweenness centrality are reasonable but there is a positive relation between node's degree and betweenness centrality value. So, there are no differences between two approaches. We first define a bridging node as the node with low connectivity and high betweenness value, we then verify that such a bridging node is a primary factor in the network robustness. For a biological network database from Internet, we demonstrate that the removal of bridging nodes defragment an entire network severally and the importance of the bridging nodes in the network robustness.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.18-29
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• 2022

Five species of plants (Clerodendrum trichotomum Thunb., Angelica dahurica (Fisch. ex Hoffm.) Benth. & Hook. f. ex Franch. & Sav., Caryopteris incana (Thunb. ex Houtt.) Miq., Lonicera japonica Thunb., and Parasenecio auriculatus var. matsumurana Nakai) native to the clean area of Mt. Jiri were selected. The collection period was from May to September 2021, and the five species plants were collected in their native habitats with flowers in full bloom. The collected plants were extracted with 70% EtOH, and 17 kinds of polyphenol components were analyzed. Next, flowers, leaves, stems, and roots were separated from plants, extracted with 70% EtOH for each part and experiments were conducted on DPPH, ABTS, total polyphenols, and total flavonoids. The results are as follows. 1. It was found that there were a total of 8 kinds of polyphenols contained in 5 species of plants that are native to Mt. Jiri. Among the polyphenol components, chlorogenic acid was contained in 4 species of plants, and caffeic acid was contained in 2 species of plants. 2. As a result, the DPPH radical scavenging activity was the best in the stem of P. auriculata and the C. trichotomum was good regardless of the specific part. It was found that the activity-scavenging activity was good in the flowers of A. dahurica and the leaves of L. japonica. 3. The highest ABTS radical scavenging activity was C. trichotomum Thunb., whose EC₅₀ value was 38.73~66.28ppm. Next, the leaves and stems of L. japonica Thunb., A. dahurica and P. auriculata, and the leaves and stems of C. incana appeared in that order. 4. The highest total polyphenol content was 154.83mg GAE/g in the leaves of C. trichotomum, followed by about 130mg GAE/g in the flowers of C. trichotomum and P. auriculata. The lowest was 26.27mg GAE/g in the stems of A. dahurica.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.115-139
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• 2008

Since financial crisis of IMF resulted in intensive competitiveness and adverse management environment, many hotel industries have responded it with restructuring. Since this restructuring is accompanied by reduction of employees, hence comes the recognition of justice in the procedure of restructuring. When the surviving employees in the restructuring process recognize unfairness in the procedure and practical operations, organization effectiveness can not be maintained due to losing trust of their employers. In this paper I will examine the relationship between validity of restructuring and compensatory programs for layoffs and surviving employees' trust of the employers. Also I will find out the relationship between remaining employees' trust of the employers and their job satisfaction and organization commitment. Through this relationship, we can prepare an alternative to reduce negative effect of restructuring. The hypotheses of this study are proposed as follows: H1: The higher surviving employees' recognition of procedural justice in restructuring process is, the higher their trust with a manager of the company is. H2: The higher surviving employees' recognition of distributive justice in restructuring process is, the higher their trust with a manager of the company is. H3: The higher surviving employees' recognition of procedural justice in restructuring process is, the higher their job satisfaction is. H4: The higher surviving employees' recognition of distributive justice in restructuring process is, the higher their job satisfaction is. H5: The higher surviving employees' recognition of procedural justice in restructuring process is, the higher their organization commitment is. H6: The higher surviving employees' recognition of distributive justice in restructuring process is, the higher their organization commitment is. H7: The higher surviving employees' trust with a manager of the company in restructuring process is, the higher their job satisfaction is. H8: The higher surviving employees' trust with a manager of the company in restructuring process is, the higher their organization commitment is. For the purposes of this study, employees working in luxury hotels located in Seoul were targeted. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to those who consented with the investigation after explaining the purpose of the survey. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed and 450 questionnaire were returned to the researcher for analysis. 430 of the returned questionnaires were used for analysis. As for the education for this survey, 250 junior college graduates or under (58.1%), 143 college graduates (33.3%) and 37 graduate school graduates (8.6%). As for the marital status, 315 persons (73.3%) are single and 115 are married (26.7%). As for the monthly income, 49 people (11.48%) are less than 2 million won, 148 (34.4%) are between 2 million and less than 2.5 million won, 153 (35.6%) are between 2.5 million to less than 3 million won, 80 (18.6%) are more than 3 million won. As for the workplace, 293 people (68.1%) work for the F&B department, 73 (17.0%) for rooms department, 41 (9.5%) for operation/ marketing department, 23 (5.3%) for account/ general affair department. As for the period of employment, 85 people (19.8%) are less than 5 years, 150 (34.9%) are between 6 to 9 years, 143 (33.3%) are between 10 to 14 years. and 52 (3.%) are more than 15 years. An exploratory factor analysis was used to survey validity and reliability of calculating tool on perceived values. This study used correlation between individual items and whole items and Cronbach's alpha value of multiple-item scale which is usually used to assess scale and reliability. Reliability of conceptual sub-dimension was assessed by basing on repeated procedure of correlation between individual items and whole items and factor loading. 1. Verification of correlation between validity of restructuring and trust This research showed that procedural and distributive justice of restructuring affects trust positively. The path coefficient between procedural justice of restructuring and trust is 0.719(t=10.135, p=0.000), and thereby the higher procedural justice results in higher trust. The path coefficient between distributive justice of restructuring and trust is 0.160(t=3.291, p=0.001), and thereby the higher distributive justice results in higher trust. Hence H1 and H2 are accepted. 2. Verification of correlation between validity of restructuring and job satisfaction The path coefficient between procedural justice of restructuring and job satisfaction is 0.179(t=2.202, p=0.028), and thereby the higher procedural justice results in higher job satisfaction. The path coefficient between distributive justice of restructuring and job satisfaction is 0.074(t=1.620, p=0.105), and thereby distributive justice of restructuring has no relationship with job satisfaction. Hence H3 is accepted, but H4 is removed. 3. Verification of correlation between validity of restructuring and organization commitment The path coefficient between procedural justice of restructuring and organization commitment is 0.188(t=2.466, p=0.014), and thereby the higher procedural justice results in higher organization commitment. The path coefficient between distributive justice of restructuring and organization commitment is 0.118(t=2.720, p=0.007), and thereby the higher distributive justice results in higher organization commitment. Hence H5 and H6 are accepted. 4. Verification of correlation between trust and job satisfaction The path coefficient between trust and job satisfaction is 0.610(t=6.736, p=0.000), and thereby the correlation has a meaningful result. Since the higher trust of the employer results in higher job satisfaction, H7 is accepted. 5. Verification of correlation between trust and organization commitment The path coefficient between procedural justice of restructuring and job satisfaction is 0.446(t=5.547 p=0.000), and thereby the higher trust of the employer results in higher organization commitment. Hence H8 is accepted. This research aimed to help the employers of hotel industries by analyzing the effects of validity of restructuring on employees' trust, job satisfaction and organization commitment. The research found that employer's validity of restructuring has significant affects on the degree of employee's trust with a manager, thereby reducing the negative effects of restructuring and enhancing organization commitment and job satisfaction. The principal purpose of this research is to confirm the correlation between employees' perceived validity of restructuring and their trust with a manager. Also whether this correlation results in competitive edge of the company is also investigated. It is also pointed out that employees had to participated the procedure of restructuring, sharing the philosophy and reason of restructuring. This participation and furthermore compensatory methods can reduce employees' anxiety of organization operations. Variable of trust appeared to have impact on intermediation effect between perceived variable of validity and job satisfaction, organization commitment, so that increase of trust with a manager plays an crucial role in increasing organization effectiveness. Since this research did not cover whole hotel industries which underwent restructuring, it showed a limit. Unlike previous studies which dealt with validity and trust of superior bosses, this research focussed on employers. Also the organization citizenship which is not considered in this study will be dealt with in the future study.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2012

Nowadays, customer satisfaction has been one of company's major objectives, and the index to measure and communicate customer satisfaction has been generally accepted among business practices. The major issues of CSI(customer satisfaction index) are three questions, as follows: (a)what level of customer satisfaction is tolerable, (b)whether customer satisfaction and company performance has positive causality, and (c)what to do to improve customer satisfaction. Among these, the second issue is recently attracting academic research in several perspectives. On this study, the second issue will be addressed. Many researchers including Anderson have regarded customer satisfaction as core competencies, such as brand equity, customer equity. They want to verify following causality "customer satisfaction → market performance(market share, sales growth rate) → financial performance(operating margin, profitability) → corporate value performance(stock price, credit ratings)" based on the process model of marketing performance. On the other hand, Insoo Jeon and Aeju Jeong(2009) verified sequential causality based on the process model by the domestic data. According to the rejection of several hypotheses, they suggested the balance model of marketing performance as an alternative. The objective of this study, based on the existing process model, is to examine the causal relationship between customer satisfaction and corporate value performance. Anderson and Mansi(2009) proved the relationship between ACSI(American Customer Satisfaction Index) and credit ratings using 2,574 samples from 1994 to 2004 on the assumption that credit rating could be an indicator of a corporate value performance. The similar study(Sangwoon Yoon, 2010) was processed in Korean data, but it didn't confirm the relationship between KCSI(Korean CSI) and credit ratings, unlike the results of Anderson and Mansi(2009). The summary of these studies is in the Table 1. Two studies analyzing the relationship between customer satisfaction and credit ratings weren't consistent results. So, in this study we are to test the conflicting results of the relationship between customer satisfaction and credit ratings based on the research model considering Korean credit ratings. To prove the hypothesis, we suggest the research model as follows. Two important features of this model are the inclusion of important variables in the existing Korean credit rating system and government support. To control their influences on credit ratings, we included three important variables of Korean credit rating system and government support, in case of financial institutions including banks. ROA, ER, TA, these three variables are chosen among various kinds of financial indicators since they are the most frequent variables in many previous studies. The results of the research model are relatively favorable : R², F-value and p-value is .631, 233.15 and .000 respectively. Thus, the explanatory power of the research model as a whole is good and the model is statistically significant. The research model has good explanatory power, the regression coefficients of the KCSI is .096 as positive(+) and t-value and p-value is 2.220 and .0135 respectively. As a results, we can say the hypothesis is supported. Meanwhile, all other explanatory variables including ROA, ER, log(TA), GS_DV are identified as significant and each variables has a positive(+) relationship with CRS. In particular, the t-value of log(TA) is 23.557 and log(TA) as an explanatory variables of the corporate credit ratings shows very high level of statistical significance. Considering interrelationship between financial indicators such as ROA, ER which include total asset in their formula, we can expect multicollinearity problem. But indicators like VIF and tolerance limits that shows whether multicollinearity exists or not, say that there is no statistically significant multicollinearity in all the explanatory variables. KCSI, the main subject of this study, is a statistically significant level even though the standardized regression coefficients and t-value of KCSI is .055 and 2.220 respectively and a relatively low level among explanatory variables. Considering that we chose other explanatory variables based on the level of explanatory power out of many indicators in the previous studies, KCSI is validated as one of the most significant explanatory variables for credit rating score. And this result can provide new insights on the determinants of credit ratings. However, KCSI has relatively lower impact than main financial indicators like log(TA), ER. Therefore, KCSI is one of the determinants of credit ratings, but don't have an exceedingly significant influence. In addition, this study found that customer satisfaction had more meaningful impact on corporations of small asset size than those of big asset size, and on service companies than manufacturers. The findings of this study is consistent with Anderson and Mansi(2009), but different from Sangwoon Yoon(2010). Although research model of this study is a bit different from Anderson and Mansi(2009), we can conclude that customer satisfaction has a significant influence on company's credit ratings either Korea or the United State. In addition, this paper found that customer satisfaction had more meaningful impact on corporations of small asset size than those of big asset size and on service companies than manufacturers. Until now there are a few of researches about the relationship between customer satisfaction and various business performance, some of which were supported, some weren't. The contribution of this study is that credit rating is applied as a corporate value performance in addition to stock price. It is somewhat important, because credit ratings determine the cost of debt. But so far it doesn't get attention of marketing researches. Based on this study, we can say that customer satisfaction is partially related to all indicators of corporate business performances. Practical meanings for customer satisfaction department are that it needs to actively invest in the customer satisfaction, because active investment also contributes to higher credit ratings and other business performances. A suggestion for credit evaluators is that they need to design new credit rating model which reflect qualitative customer satisfaction as well as existing variables like ROA, ER, TA.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.55-78
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• 2011

Recently strategic alliance between business firms has become prevalent to overcome increasing competitive threats and to supplement resource limitation of individual firms. As one of allianced sales promotion activities, a new type of discount program, so called "Alliance Card Discount", is introduced with the partnership of credit cards and loyalty cards. The program mainly pursues short-term sales growth by larger discount scheme while spends less through cost share among alliance partners. Thus this program can be regarded as cost efficient discount promotion. But because there is no solid evidence that it can really deliver profitable sales growth, an empirical study for its effects on sales and profit should be conducted. This study has two basic research questions concerning the effects of allianced discount program ; 1)the possibility of sales increase 2) the profitability of the discount driven sales. In F&B industry, sales increase mainly comes from increased guest count. Especially in family restaurants, to increase the number of guests we need to enlarge the size of visitor group (number of visitors for one group) because customers visit by group in a special occasion. And because they pay the bill by group(table), the increase of sales per table is a key measure for sales improvement. The past researches for price & discount sensitivity and reference discount rate explain that price sensitive consumers have narrow reference discount zone and make rational purchase decision. Differently from all time discount scheme of regular sales promotions, the alliance card discount program only provides the right to get discount like discount coupon. And because it is usually once a month opportunity given by the past month usage level, customers tend to perceive alliance card discount as a rare chance to get. So that we can expect customers try to maximize the discount effect when they use the limited discount opportunity. Considering group visiting practice and low visit frequency of family restaurants, the way to maximize discount effect should be the increase the size of visit group. And their sensitivity to discount and rational consumption behavior defer the additional spending for ordering high price menu, even though they get considerable amount of savings from the discount. From the analysis of sales data paid by alliance discount cards for four months, we found the below. 1) The relation between discount rate and number of guest per table is positive : 25% discount results one additional guest 2) The relation between discount rate and the spending per guest is negative. 3) However, total profit amount per table is increased when discount rate is increased. 4) Reward point accumulation & redemption did not show any significant relationship with the increase of number of guests. These results suggest that the allianced discount program substantially contributes to sales increase and profit improvement by increasing the number of guests per table. Though the spending per guest is decreased by discount rate increase, the total amount of profit per table is improved. It seems the incremental profit by increased guest count offsets the profit decrease. Additional intriguing finding is the point reward system does not have any significant impact on the increase of number of guest, even if the point accumulation & redemption of loyalty program are usually regarded as another saving offers by customers. In sum, because it is proved that allianced discount program with credit cards and loyalty cards is effective to both sales drive and profit increase, the alliance card program could be recommended as strategically buyable program.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.917-922
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• 2003

This study was conducted to investigate effects of farm, type of sow Landrace${\times}$Yorkshire, LY; Yorkshire${\times}$ Landrace, YL; Yorkshire${\times}$Yorkshire, YY and multi-cross bred sow, MBS), parity, farrowing year, farrowing season and mating method on reproductive traits such as total number born per litter, number of born alive per litter, number of weaned per litter, number of mummified per litter, number of stillbirth. The Reproductive Records of 3,387 litters from January, 1999 to September, 2002 were obtained from four pig farms managed by Electronic Data Processing(EDP) system. Reproductive performances for two types of F1 Sows(YL and LY) were estimated as 11.34${\pm}$0.266 and 11.57${\pm}$0.263 heads for total number of born per litter, 10.56${\pm}$0.216 and 11.81${\pm}$0.251 heads for number of born alive per litter, and 10.05${\pm}$0.131 and 9.96${\pm}$0.153 heads for number of weaned per litter, respectively. These records are significantly higher(P〈0.05) than those of YY and MBS. However, number of mummified per litter, number of stillborn per litter, number of dead by diarrhea per litter, number of dead by other reasons during lactating period per litter and estrus interval did not show significant difference between types of sows. There were more total number of born per litter and number of weaned per litter in year 2001 than other year. As year passed, number of dead by crush per litter, number of dead by diarrhea per litter and number of dead by other reasons during lactating period per litter reduced from 0.18${\pm}$0.023 to 0.07${\pm}$0.022 head, 0.12${\pm}$0.21 to 0.02${\pm}$0.020 head and 0.43${\pm}$0.041 to 0.22${\pm}$0.040 head, respectively and weaning rate increased from 0.94${\pm}$0.005% to 0.97${\pm}$0.005%. The total number of born per litter and number of born alive per litter were higher(P〈0.05) in the case of mating twice than mating once. The number of weaned per litter, number of mummified per litter and number of stillborn per litter were not significant(P〈0.05) between mating methods. Estrus interval was shorter on the occasion of twice artificial insemination(5.24${\pm}$0.153days) than twice natural mating(6.51${\pm}$0.466days).

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.336-344
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• 2010

To assess population structure and genetic diversity among the Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus), we investigated mtDNA COI gene sequences of 7 populations. Samples were obtained from Sokcho, Wolsung, Geojedo, Yeosu, Geomundo and Westsouth in 2008 and 2009 (n=28). The sequence analysis of 28 individual samples showed 8 haplotypes, ranging in sequence divergence by pairwise comparisons from 0.2 to 2.2% (1 bp-11 bp). The Gal haplotype was found in Wolsung, Geojedo, Yeosu, Geomundo and Westsouth, and was regarded as the main haplotype of Korean Pacific cod. Ga2, Ga3, Ga6 and Ga7 haplotypes were found only in Sokcho. In the PHYLIP analysis, 8 haplotypes formed two independent groups: cladeA consisted of Ga2, Ga3, Ga6 and Ga7 haplotypes, whereas cladeB contained Gal, Ga4, Ga5 and Ga8 haplotypes. The genetic relationship between the two groups was weakly supported by bootstrap analysis(<50%). In pairwise comparisons between 6 populations other than that from Sokcho, a very high per generation migration ratio ($N_m$=infinite) and a very low level of geographic distance ($F_{sr}=-0.0123-(-0.0423)$) were observed. The estimates of genetic distance between Sokcho and the other localities were all statistically significant (p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001), indicating a limited mtDNA-based gene flow between Sokcho and other regions. The finding of the lowest genetic diversity in the Sokcho population (nucleotide diversity=0.00589) may be a result of relatively small population size and interrupted gene flow to other localities. Consequently, the overall considerable migration of Pacific cod population in Korea caused a genetically homogeneous structure to form, although a distinct population was found in this study.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.389-398
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• 2013

Platycodin D is a major constituent of triterpene saponins, which is found in the root of Platycodon grandiflorum, Platycodi Radix, which is widely used in traditional Oriental medicine for the treatment of many chronic inflammatory diseases. Several pharmacological effects of this compound have been reported recently, such as anti-inflammation, immunogenicity, anti-adipogenesis, lowered cholesterol, and anti-cancer activity. However, the mechanism by which this action occurs is poorly understood. In this study, we found that platycodin D greatly increased the potential of the anti-proliferative effect in various cancer cell lines. Our data revealed that platycodin D treatment resulted in a time- and concentration-response growth inhibition of U937 cells by inducing apoptosis, as evidenced by the formation of apoptotic bodies, chromatin condensation, and the accumulation of cells in the sub-G1 phase. Apoptosis induction of U937 cells by platycodin D correlated with an increase in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and caused the down-regulation of IAP family members. In addition, platycodin D treatment resulted in proteolytic activation of caspase-3, the concomitant degradation of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases, and the collapse of the mitochondria membrane potential (${\Delta}{\Psi}_m$). However, the cytotoxic effects induced by platycodin D treatment were significantly inhibited by z-DEVD-fmk, a caspase-3 inhibitor, which demonstrated the important role that caspase-3 played in the observed cytotoxic effect. These findings suggest that platycodin D may be a potential chemotherapeutic agent for use in the control of human leukemia U937 cells. These findings also provided important new insights into possible molecular mechanisms of the anti-cancer activity of platycodin D.