• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.382-389
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• 2002

The aims of this study is to evaluate the effect of Aspergillus oryzae Fermentation Extract (AFE) on the performance of lactating cows in summer (May to July) and winter (December to February). The experiment was a completely randomized design (CRD) and dietary treatments were 1) basal diet without AFE, 2) basal plus 3 g/d AFE into the basal total mixed ration (TMR), 3) basal plus 45.4 mg AFE/kg the ensiling corn silage and 4) AFE inclusion in silage and TMR. Twenty-eight cows from each trial were selected and randomly allocated into the four treatment groups, confined in individual pens, and fed ad libitum for 8 weeks in both seasons of feeding trials. Results showed that AFE inclusion in corn silage significantly improved DM intake by 4.4% and milk yield by 3.1% (p<0.05) during summer. In the winter season, AFE inclusion in the diet significantly improved milk yield by 10%. Direct addition of AFE to the TMR even further significantly improved milk yield over the addition through corn silage by 7.4% in winter (p<0.05). An additive effect of AFE inclusion into TMR and through corn silage was also demonstrated in the winter-feeding. AFE inclusion however, did not improve DM intake during the winter trial. In the summer trial, inclusion of AFE showed an adverse effect on the percentage of milk fat, but did not impact on the milk fat yield. Adding AFE through corn silage showed a trend towards alleviating the negative effects of milk fat from direct AFE inclusion in TMR. The similar trend occurred in the winter trial. The inclusion of AFE through corn silage significantly lowered the milk protein content over direct AFE addition, but did not significantly impacted the milk protein yield in summer. AFE supplementation during the winter season significantly increased milk protein content. Adding AFE to the corn silage significantly increased milk protein content over direct AFE addition in winter although inclusion of AFE significantly decreased total milk solid content in the summer (p<0.005). During the winter season, inclusion of AFE required less DM to produce a unit of milk. Inclusion of AFE into corn silage required less DM, energy and protein to produce a unit of milk. But inclusion of AFE did not alleviate heat stress on the lactating cows.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.1076-1083
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• 2000

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract (AFE) on in situ degradation of the various concentrates, forages and by-products in Taiwan. The in situ trial was conducted to determine the effect of AFE on the rate of ruminal degradation of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and acid detergent fiber (ADF) of the various local available feedstuff commonly used for dairy cattle. Two ruminal fistulated cows were arranged into a two by two switchback trial. Two dietary treatments were control without AFE inclusion diet and diet with 3 g of AFE (Amaferm) added daily into the total mixed ration (TMR). Results showed that effect of AFE inclusion on the ruminal degradability of concentrates vary; soybean meal is the most responsive feedstuff, corn is the next, whereas full-fat soybean did not response the AFE inclusion at all. The inclusion of AFE significantly depressed most of the nutrient degradation of the concentrates of soybean meal in the first 12-hour in situ incubation. The effect declined in the next 12 hours. Rapeseed meal showed a different trend of response: addition of AFE improved its NDF degradation. The inclusions of AFE significantly improved ADF degradation of roughage after 24 or 48 hours of incubation. However, corn silage and peanut-vines showed a different trend. Effects of AFE inclusion on the by-products degradability were inconsistent. Most of nutrients in rice distillers grain and some in beancurd pomace did show increased degradation by the AFE inclusion.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.709-716
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• 1994

This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of dietary Fe levels on Cd accumulation in Cd poisoned rats. Forty male weaning Sprague Dawley rats weighing 80-90g were divided into 4 groups(LFe : low Fe, LFeCd : low Fe and Cd, AFe : adequate Fe, AFeCd : adequate Fe and Cd) according to Cd administration(Cd : 0 or 50ppm in drinking water) and Fe levels (Fe : 6 or 40ppm in diet) for 12 weeks. The food intake and weight gain of LFe and LFeCd were significantly lower than those of AFe and AFeCd(p<0.01, p<0.001). The water intake was not affected significantly by Cd and Fe, therefore Cd intake was no significant difference between groups. The Cd accumulation of kidney in LFeCd was significantly higher than those of AFeCd(p<0.001). But the Cd accumulations of brain, liver and spleen were not significantly different between Cd groups and without Cd groups. The serum Cd content and urinary Cd excretion of LFeCd was significantly higher than those of AFeCd(p<0.01, p<0.01). But the fecal Cd excretion of LFeCd was significantly lower than that of AFeCd(p<0.001). The Cd retention, Cd retention rate, and apparent Cd digestibility of LFeCd were significantly higher than those of AFeCd(p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001). It was concluded that adequate Fe supplementation have protective effects on the long term Cd poisoning in rats.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.1416-1424
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• 2017

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the effects of alfalfa flavonoids on the production performance, immunity, and ruminal fermentation of dairy cows. Methods: The experiments employed four primiparous Holstein cows fitted with ruminal cannulas, and used a $4{\times}4$ Latin square design. Cattle were fed total mixed ration supplemented with 0 (control group, Con), 20, 60, or 100 mg of alfalfa flavonoids extract (AFE) per kg of dairy cow body weight (BW). Results: The feed intake of the group receiving 60 mg/kg BW of AFE were significantly higher (p<0.05) than that of the group receiving 100 mg/kg BW. Milk yields and the fat, protein and lactose of milk were unaffected by AFE, while the total solids content of milk reduced (p = 0.05) linearly as AFE supplementation was increased. The somatic cell count of milk in group receiving 60 mg/kg BW of AFE was significantly lower (p<0.05) than that of the control group. Apparent total-tract digestibility of neutral detergent fiber and crude protein showed a tendency to increase (0.05<$p{\leq}0.10$) with ingestion of AFE. Methane dicarboxylic aldehyde concentration decreased (p = 0.03) linearly, whereas superoxide dismutase activity showed a tendency to increase (p = 0.10) quadratically, with increasing levels of AFE supplementation. The lymphocyte count and the proportion of lymphocytes decreased (p = 0.03) linearly, whereas the proportion of neutrophil granulocytes increased (p = 0.01) linearly with increasing levels of dietary AFE supplementation. The valeric acid/total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) ratio was increased (p = 0.01) linearly with increasing of the level of AFE supplementation, the other ruminal fermentation parameters were not affected by AFE supplementation. Relative levels of the rumen microbe Ruminococcus flavefaciens tended to decrease (p = 0.09) quadratically, whereas those of Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens showed a tendency to increase (p = 0.07) quadratically in response to AFE supplementation. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that AFE supplementation can alter composition of milk, and may also have an increase tendency of nutrient digestion by regulating populations of microbes in the rumen, improve antioxidant properties by increasing antioxidant enzyme activities, and affect immunity by altering the proportions of lymphocyte and neutrophil granulocytes in dairy cows. The addition of 60 mg/kg BW of AFE to the diet of dairy cows was shown to be beneficial in this study.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.10a
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• pp.13-13
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• 2010

In the present study, the chemical constituents of Artemisia fukudo essential oil (AFE) were investigated using GC-MS. The major constituents were ${\alpha}$-thujone (40.28%), ${\beta}$-thujone (12.69%), camphor (6.95%) and caryophyllene (6.01%). We also examined the effects of AFE on the production of nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin $E_2$ ($PGE_2$), tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$), interleukin-IL-$1{\beta}$ (IL-$1{\beta}$), and IL-6 in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated RAW 264.7 cells. Western blotting and RT-PCR analyses indicated that AFE has potent dose-dependent inhibitory effects on pro-inflammatory cytokines and mediators. We investigated the mechanism by which AFE inhibits NO and $PGE_2$ by examining the level of nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ (NF-${\kappa}B$: p50 and p65) activation within the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK: ERK, JNK and p38) pathway, which is an inflammation induced signal pathway in RAW 264.7 cells. AFE inhibited LPS-induced ERK, JNK and p38 phosphorylation. Furthermore, AFE inhibited the LPS-induced phosphorylation and degradation of $I{\kappa}B-{\alpha}$, which is required for the nuclear translocations of the p50 and p65 NF-${\kappa}B$ subunits in RAW 264.7 cells. Our results suggest that AFE might exert an anti-inflammatory effect by inhibiting the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Such an effect is mediated by a blocking of NF-${\kappa}B$ activation which consequently inhibits the generation of inflammatory mediators in RAW 264.7 cells. AFE may be useful for treating inflammatory diseases.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.35 no.1C
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• pp.77-86
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• 2010

In this paper, we present a noncoherent IR-UWB (Impulse Radio-Ultra Wide Band) ranging system with an AFE (Analog Front End) composed of a simple integrator and an 1-bit ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter), and define AFE characteristics affecting the ranging performance. This system is realistic and easy to implement, since the integrator simply accumulates signal energies and the simple 1-bit ADC is applied instead of the multi-bit ADCs for coherent IR-UWB systems. On the other hand, its ranging accuracy is largely affected channel environments such as noise, multipath fading and so on, since the noncoherent receiver simply squares and integrates the received signals. However, despite these practical importances, there are few conventional researches on the performance analysis according to AFE characteristics in IR-UWB ranging systems. To this end, we analyze in this paper ranging performance according to AFE characteristics for the noncoherent IR-UWB ranging system in various wireless channel environments, and through these results we also present system parameters to be considered in UWB hardware designs.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.717-724
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• 2009

This paper describes a 1.2 V 12 b 60 MS/s CMOS analog front-end (AFE) employing low-power and flexible design techniques for image signal processing. An op-amp preset technique and programmable capacitor array scheme are used in a variable gain amplifier to reduce the power consumption with a small area of the AFE. A pipelined analog-to-digital converter with variable resolution and a clock detector provide operation flexibility with regard to resolution and speed. The AFE is fabricated in a 0.13 ${\mu}m$ CMOS process and shows a gain error of 0.68 LSB with 0.0352 dB gain steps and a differential/integral nonlinearity of 0.64/1.58 LSB. The signal-to-noise ratio of the AFE is 59.7 dB at a 60 MHz sampling frequency. The AFE occupies 1.73 $mm^2$ and dissipates 64 mW from a 1.2 V supply. Also, the performance of the proposed AFE is demonstrated by an implementation of an image signal processing platform for digital camcorders.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.202-215
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• 2015

This paper investigates the stability and performance of model predictive controlled active-front-end (AFE) rectifiers for energy storage systems, which has been increasingly applied in power distribution sectors and in renewable energy sources to ensure an uninterruptable power supply. The model predictive control (MPC) algorithm utilizes the discrete behavior of power converters to determine appropriate switching states by defining a cost function. The stability of the MPC algorithm is analyzed with the discrete z-domain response and the nonlinear simulation model. The results confirms that the control method of the active-front-end (AFE) rectifier is stable, and that is operates with an infinite gain margin and a very fast dynamic response. Moreover, the performance of the MPC controlled AFE rectifier is verified with a 3.0 kW experimental system. This shows that the MPC controlled AFE rectifier operates with a unity power factor, an acceptable THD (4.0 %) level for the input current and a very low DC voltage ripple. Finally, an efficiency comparison is performed between the MPC and the VOC-based PWM controllers for AFE rectifiers. This comparison demonstrates the effectiveness of the MPC controller.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 1996

This study was undertaken to investigate the effect on the Cd accumulation in long-term Cd poisoned rats. 40 male weaning Sprague Dawley rats weighting 80-90g were divided into 4 groups (LCuLFeCd : low Cu, Fe and Cd group, ACuLFeCd : adequate Cu, low Fe and Cd group, ACuAFeCd : adequate Cu, adequate Fe and Cd group) according to Cu and Fe levels (Cu 0.5ppm, 8.5ppm : Fe 6ppm, 40ppm) for 12 weeks. There were no significant difference in water intake, feed intake, and body weight gain according to dietary Cu and Fe consumption. But the mean food intake and body weight gain of adequate Fe groups(LCuAFeCd, ACuAFeCd) were higher than those of deficient Fe groups (ACuLFeCd, LCuFeCd)in long-term Cd poisoned rats. The mean Cd levels of serum, liver, kidney, and urine in ACuAFeCd group were lower than those of Cu and /or Fe deficient groups. But the mean fecal Cd excretion of ACuAFeCd group was higher than that of Cu and/or Fe deficient groups. And the mean Cd retention amount of ACuAFeCd group was lower than those of Cu and/or Fe deficinet groups. In conclusion, these results provide an evidence that adequate Cu and Fe intakes can decrease Cd accumulation in rats. Therefore, in the point of increasing environmental Cd contamination, adequate Cu and Fe intakes must be suggested to prevent Cd accumulations.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.9-16
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• 1994

This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of dietary low (Fe) levels on Fe metabolism of cadmium(Cd) poisoned rats. 40 male Sprague weaning Dawley rats weighing 80-90g were divided into 4 groups(LFe:low Fe, LFeCd:low Fe and Cd, AFe: adequate Fe, AFeCd: adequate Fe and Cd) according to Cd administration(0, 50ppm in drinking water) and Fe levels(Fe:6ppm, 40ppm in diet)for 12 weeks. The food intake and body weight gain of Cd group with low Fe(LFeCd) were significantly lower than those of without Cd group with adequate Fe(AFe)(p<0.01, P<0.05). But there was no significantly difference between Cd groups and without Cd groups in water intake. The blood levels of hemoglobin, hematocrit, and serum levels of Fe of LFeCd were significantly lower than those of AFe(p<0.01, p<0.05, p<0.001). The urinary and fecal excretion of Fe of LFeCd was significantly lower than that of AFe(p<0.05, p0.05). The levels of Fe of liver, spleen in LFeCd were lower than those of AFeCd(p<0.05, p<0.05). These results indicates that adequate iron supplementation to Cd pretreated rats induce protective effects on the reduction of Fe status by Cd poisoning.