• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.8_spc
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• pp.1244-1255
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• 2019

Dairy goat production continues to be a socially, economically and culturally important part of the livestock industry in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean islands. Goat milk, cheese and other dairy products offer consumers food products with nutritional, health and environmental benefits. In North America, Mexico produces the greatest volume of goat milk, but most is for family or local consumption that is typical of a mixed farming system adopted by subsistence farmers in dry areas. The United States is not yet a large global goat milk producer, but the sector has expanded rapidly, with dairy goat numbers doubling between 1997 and 2012. The number of dairy goats has also increased dramatically in Canada. Commercial farms are increasingly important, driven by rising demand for good quality and locally sourced goat cheese. In South America, Brazil has the most developed dairy goat industry that includes government assistance to small-scale producers and low-income households. As of 2017, FAO identified Haiti, Peru, Jamaica, and Bolivia as having important goat milk production in the Western Hemisphere. For subsistence goat producers in the Americas on marginal land without prior history of chemical usage, organic dairy goat production can be a viable alternative for income generation, with sufficient transportation, sanitation and marketing initiatives. Production efficiency, greenhouse gas emission, waste disposal, and animal welfare are important challenges for dairy goat producers in the Americas.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.3-24
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• 2018

Stories are important instruments for configuring our cognitive and social worlds, but they do not necessarily make us more caring or less aggressive and self-involved. The ability to tell and follow a story requires cognitive capacities that are basic to the neurobiology of mental functioning, and so it would stand to reason that our experiences with stories would draw on and re-shape patterns of interaction that extend beyond the immediate experience of reading or listening to a narrative. Our intuitive, bodily-based ability to understand the actions of other people is fundamental to social relations, including the circuit between the representation of a configured action emplotted in a narrative and the reader's or listener's activity of following the story as we assimilate its patterns into the figures that shape our worlds. The activity of following a narrative can have a variety of beneficial or potentially noxious social consequences, either promoting the shared intentionality that neurobiologically oriented cultural anthropologists identify as a unique human capacity supporting culturally productive collaboration, or habitualizing and thereby naturalizing particular patterns of perception into rigid ideological constructs. The doubling of "me" and "not-me" in narrative acts of identification may promote the "we-intentionality" that makes socially beneficial cooperation possible, or it can set off mimetic conflict and various contagion effects. Neuroscience cannot predict what the social consequences of narrative will be, but it can identify the brain- and body-based processes through which (for better or worse) stories exercise social power.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.202-208
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• 2022

This study investigated the influence of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) and progesterone on acrosome reaction and proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) composition boar sperm. The sperm were diluted with semen extender and incubated with NaHCO₃ and progesterone at 38℃, 5% CO₂ for 6 h. Plasma membrane integrity and acrosome reaction were analyzed using SYBR14/propidium iodide (PI) and FITC-PNA/PI doubling staining method, and proportion of PUFA was analyzed using gas chromatography. In results, Plasma membrane integrity was significantly decreased in 50 mM NaHCO₃ group and acrosome reaction was significantly increased by over the 100 mM NaHCO₃ group compared to control group (p < 0.05). In addition, progesterone significantly increased decreased plasma membrane integrity at 100 mM progesterone and acrosome reaction at over the 5.0 µM progesterone (p < 0.05), but there was no difference among the 5.0 to 100 µM groups. PUFAs were significantly decreased in 100 mM NaHCO₃ and 50 µM progesterone treatments compared to control group. In summary NaHCO₃ and progesterone induce acrosome reaction and reduce PUFA composition in boar sperm, therefore, the results maybe help to understand basically knowledge for the acrosome reaction and PUFA composition in boar sperm.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.10-16
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• 2023

Intermuscular fat is essential for enhancing the flavor and texture of cultured meat. Mesenchymal stem cells derived from intermuscular adipose tissues are a source of intermuscular fat. Therefore, as a step towards developing a platform to derive intermuscular fat from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for insertion between myofibrils in cultured beef, an advanced protocol of intermuscular adipose tissue dissociation effective to the isolation of MSCs from intermuscular adipose tissues was developed in cattle. To accomplish this, physical steps were added to the enzymatic dissociation of intermuscular adipose tissues, and the MSCs were established from primary cells dissociated with physical step-free and step-added enzymatic dissociation protocols. The application of a physical step (intensive shaking up) at 5 minutes intervals during enzymatic dissociation resulted in the greatest number of primary cells derived from intermuscular adipose tissues, showed effective formation of colony forming units-fibroblasts (CFU-Fs) from the retrieved primary cells, and generated MSCs with no increase in doubling time. Thus, this protocol will contribute to the stable supply of good quality adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) as a fat source for the production of marbled cultured beef.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.309-319
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• 2023

Non-woven fabric is a textile product made by spinning thermoplastic polymers without manufacturing processes such as stretching, doubling, twisting, weaving, and knitting to form a sheet-shaped web in which fibers are tangled with each other, and then combining them by mechanical and physical methods. In addition, the non-woven fabric manufacturing process has various raw material choices, high productivity, so it is a textile manufacturing technology that can have various uses and increase added value. This study was conducted to control the shape and physical properties of products by improving the manufacturing method of melt-blown non-woven fabrics using process technology that easily changes the shape of non-woven fabrics and improves mechanical properties. In particular, it is considered that a non-woven fabric with a thin material shape and improved mechanical properties will be easily applied to a continuous secondary battery manufacturing industry such as roll to roll operation.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.323-329
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• 2023

Peripheral blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (PB-MSCs) have shown promise in cell-based therapy, as they can be harvested with ease through minimally invasive procedures. This study aimed to isolate PB-MSCs from foals and mares and to compare the proliferation and cellular characteristics of the PB-MSCs between the two groups. Six pairs of mares and their foals were used in this study. MSCs were isolated from PB by direct plating in a tissue culture medium, and cell proliferation (population doubling time [PDT], and colony-forming unit-fibroblast assay [CFU-F]), and characterization (morphology, plastic adhesiveness, colony formation, trilineage differentiation) were examined. There was no significant difference in the PB-MSC yield, CFU-F, and PDT between the mares and foals. PB-MSCs from both mares and foals showed typical MSC characteristics in terms of spindle-shaped morphology, plastic adhesive properties, formation of colonies, trilineage differentiation. These results suggest that PB-MSCs isolated from horses, both adult horses, and foals, can be used for equine cell-based therapy.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.506-515
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• 2024

Primary human dermal papilla cells (HDPCs) are often preferred in studies on hair growth and regeneration. However, primary HDPCs are limited by their reduced proliferative capacity, decreased hair induction potential, and extended doubling times at higher passages. To overcome these limitations, pTARGET vectors containing human papillomavirus16 (HPV16) E6/E7 oncogenes were transfected into HDPCs and selected using G-148 to generate immortalized cells here. HPV16 E6/E7 oncogenes were efficiently transfected into primary HDPCs. Immortalized HDPC showed higher proliferative activity than primary HDPC, confirming an increased proliferation rate. Expression of p53 and pRb proteins was downregulated by E6 and E7, respectively. E6/E7 expressing HDPC cells revealed that cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor p21 expression was decreased, while cell cycle-related genes and proteins (CDK2 and cyclin E) and E2F family genes were upregulated. Immortalized HDPCs maintained their responsiveness to Wnt/β-catenin pathway and hair follicle formation capability, as indicated by their aggregative properties and stemness. E6/E7 immortalized HDPCs may facilitate in vitro hair growth and regeneration studies.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.1167-1180
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• 2024

This study aimed to investigate effects of chicken age on proliferation and differentiation capacity of muscle satellite cells (MSCs) and to determine total amino acid contents of cultured meat (CM) produced. Chicken MSCs (cMSCs) were isolated from hindlimb muscles of broiler chickens at 5-week-old (5W) and 19-embryonic-day (19ED), respectively. Proliferation abilities (population doubling time and cell counting kit 8) of cMSCs from 19ED were significantly higher than those from 5W (p<0.05). Likewise, both myotube formation area and expression of myosin heavy chain heavy of cMSCs from 19ED were significantly higher than those from 5W (p<0.05). After cMSCs were serially subcultured for long-term cultivation in 2D flasks to produce cultured meat tissue (CMT), total amino acid contents of CMT showed no significant difference between 5W and 19ED chickens (p>0.05). This finding suggests that cMSCs from chicken embryos are more suitable for improving the production efficiency of CM than those derived from young chickens.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.353-366
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• 2024

Organic soils pose significant challenges in geotechnical engineering due to their high compressibility and low stability, which can result in issues like differential settlement, rutting, and pavement deformation. This study explores effective methods for stabilizing organic soils. Rather than conventional ordinary Portland cement (OPC), the focus is on using environmentally friendly calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement, known for its rapid setting, high early strength development, and environmental benefits. Mechanical behavior is analyzed through 1-D free swell, unconfined compressive strength (UCS), and bender element (BE) tests. Microstructural analyses, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), characterize the soil mixed with CSA cement. Experimental results demonstrate improved soil properties with increasing cement dosage and curing periods. A notable strength increase is observed in soil samples with 15% cement content, with UCS doubling after 7 days. This trend aligns with shear wave velocity results from the BE test. SEM and FTIR spectroscopy reveal how CSA cement hydration forms hydrated calcium silicate gel and ettringite, enhancing soil properties. CSA cement is recommended for reinforcing organic subgrade soil due to its eco-friendly nature and rapid strength gain, contributing to improved durability.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.187-195
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• 2011

The gesneriaceous perennial plant Titanotrichum oldhamii has beautiful foliage and attractive bright yellow flowers. However, breeding of T. oldhamii by conventional sexual hybridization may be difficult because sexual reproduction of this species is very rare. In the present study, plant regeneration systems via both direct and indirect formation of adventitious shoots from leaf explants were established as the first step toward breeding T. oldhamii by using biotechnological techniques. Adventitious shoots were formed efficiently on medium containing $0.1mg\;l^{-1}$ benzyladenine. Histological observation showed that shoot formation on this medium occurred directly from leaf epidermal cells without callus formation. On the other hand, leaf explants formed calluses on medium containing $0.1mg\;l^{-1}$ 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. The calluses could be maintained by monthly subculturing to fresh medium of the same composition. When the calluses were transferred to plant growth regulator-free medium, they formed adventitious shoots. Directly and indirectly formed shoots rooted well on medium containing $0.1mg\;l^{-1}$ indole-3-butyric acid. Plantlets thus obtained were successfully acclimatized and grew vigorously in the greenhouse. Flow cytometry analysis indicated that no variation in the ploidy level was observed in plants regenerated via direct shoot formation, whereas chromosome doubling occurred in several plants regenerated via indirect shoot formation. Regenerated plants with the same ploidy level as the mother plants showed almost the same phenotype as the mother plants, whereas chromosome-doubled plants showed apparent morphological alterations: they had small and crispate flowers, and round and deep green leaves.