• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.30-35
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• 2005

Purpose : The purpose of this study is to observe the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) contrast changes due to the reaction of human brain at a gustatory sense in response to a salty-taste stimulation. Materials and Methods : Twelve healthy, non-smoking, right-handed male subjects (mean age: 25.6, range: 23-28 years) participated in this salty-taste stimulus functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) study. MRI scans were performed with 1.57 GE Signa, using a multi-slice GE-EPI sequence according to a blood-oxy-gen-level dependent (BOLD) experiment paradigm. Scan parameters included matrix size $128\times128$, FOV 250 mm, TR 5000 msec, TE 60 msec, TH/GAP 5/2 mm. Sequential data acquisitions were carried out for 42 measurements with a repetition time of 5 sec for each taste-stimulus experiments. Analysis of fMRI data was carried out using SPM99 implemented in Matlab. NaCl solution $(3\%)$ was used as a salty stimulus. The task paradigm consisted of alternating rest-stimulus cycles (30-second rest, 15-second stimulus) for 210 seconds. During the stimulus period, NaCl-solution was presented to the subject's mouth through plastic tubes as a bolus of delivered every 5 sec using -processor controlled auto-syringe pump. Results : Insula, frontal opercular taste cortex, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) were activated by a salty-taste stimulation $(NaCl,\;3\%)$ in the fMRI experiments. And dosolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was also significantly responded to salty-taste stimuli. Activation areas of the right side hemisphere were more superior to the left side hemisphere. Conclusion : The results of this study well correspond to the fact that both insula, amygdala, OFC, DLPFC areas are established as taste cortical areas by neuronal recordings in primates. Authors found that laboratory-developed auto-syringe pump is suitable for gustatory fMRI study. Further research in this field will accelerate to inquire into the mechanism of higher order gustatory process.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.199-205
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• 2001

This study was conducted to figure out temperature profiles of a partially developed paddy rice canopy, which are necessary to run plant disease forecasting models. Air temperature over and within the developing rice canopy was monitored from one month after transplanting (June 29) to just before heading (August 24) in 1999 and 2001. During the study period, the temporal march of the within-canopy profile was analyzed and an empirical formula was developed for simulating the profile. A partially developed rice canopy temperature seemed to be controlled mainly by the ambient temperature above the canopy and the water temperature beneath the canopy, and to some extent by the solar altitude, resulting in alternating isothermal and inversion structures. On sunny days, air temperature at the height of maximum leafages was increased at the same rate as the ambient temperature above the canopy after sunrise. Below the height, the temperature increase was delayed until the solar noon. Air temperature near the water surface varied much less than those of the outer- and the upper-canopy, which kept increasing by the time of daily maximum temperature observed at the nearby synoptic station. After sunset, cooling rate is much less at the lower canopy, resulting in an isothermal profile at around the midnight. A fairly consistent drop in temperature at rice paddies compared with the nearby synoptic weather stations across geographic areas and time of day was found. According to this result, a cooling by 0.6 to 1.2$^{\circ}C$ is expected over paddy rice fields compared with the officially reported temperature during the summer months. An empirical equation for simulating the temperature profile was formulated from the field observations. Given the temperature estimates at 150 cm above the canopy and the maximum deviation at the lowest layer, air temperature at any height within the canopy can be predicted by this equation. As an application, temperature surfaces at several heights within rice fields were produced over the southwestern plains in Korea at a 1 km by 1km grid spacing, where rice paddies were identified by a satellite image analysis. The outer canopy temperature was prepared by a lapse rate corrected spatial interpolation of the synoptic temperature observations combined with the hourly cooling rate over the rice paddies.