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Deep Learning Architectures and Applications (딥러닝의 모형과 응용사례)

  • Ahn, SungMahn
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.22 no.2
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    • pp.127-142
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    • 2016
  • Deep learning model is a kind of neural networks that allows multiple hidden layers. There are various deep learning architectures such as convolutional neural networks, deep belief networks and recurrent neural networks. Those have been applied to fields like computer vision, automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, audio recognition and bioinformatics where they have been shown to produce state-of-the-art results on various tasks. Among those architectures, convolutional neural networks and recurrent neural networks are classified as the supervised learning model. And in recent years, those supervised learning models have gained more popularity than unsupervised learning models such as deep belief networks, because supervised learning models have shown fashionable applications in such fields mentioned above. Deep learning models can be trained with backpropagation algorithm. Backpropagation is an abbreviation for "backward propagation of errors" and a common method of training artificial neural networks used in conjunction with an optimization method such as gradient descent. The method calculates the gradient of an error function with respect to all the weights in the network. The gradient is fed to the optimization method which in turn uses it to update the weights, in an attempt to minimize the error function. Convolutional neural networks use a special architecture which is particularly well-adapted to classify images. Using this architecture makes convolutional networks fast to train. This, in turn, helps us train deep, muti-layer networks, which are very good at classifying images. These days, deep convolutional networks are used in most neural networks for image recognition. Convolutional neural networks use three basic ideas: local receptive fields, shared weights, and pooling. By local receptive fields, we mean that each neuron in the first(or any) hidden layer will be connected to a small region of the input(or previous layer's) neurons. Shared weights mean that we're going to use the same weights and bias for each of the local receptive field. This means that all the neurons in the hidden layer detect exactly the same feature, just at different locations in the input image. In addition to the convolutional layers just described, convolutional neural networks also contain pooling layers. Pooling layers are usually used immediately after convolutional layers. What the pooling layers do is to simplify the information in the output from the convolutional layer. Recent convolutional network architectures have 10 to 20 hidden layers and billions of connections between units. Training deep learning networks has taken weeks several years ago, but thanks to progress in GPU and algorithm enhancement, training time has reduced to several hours. Neural networks with time-varying behavior are known as recurrent neural networks or RNNs. A recurrent neural network is a class of artificial neural network where connections between units form a directed cycle. This creates an internal state of the network which allows it to exhibit dynamic temporal behavior. Unlike feedforward neural networks, RNNs can use their internal memory to process arbitrary sequences of inputs. Early RNN models turned out to be very difficult to train, harder even than deep feedforward networks. The reason is the unstable gradient problem such as vanishing gradient and exploding gradient. The gradient can get smaller and smaller as it is propagated back through layers. This makes learning in early layers extremely slow. The problem actually gets worse in RNNs, since gradients aren't just propagated backward through layers, they're propagated backward through time. If the network runs for a long time, that can make the gradient extremely unstable and hard to learn from. It has been possible to incorporate an idea known as long short-term memory units (LSTMs) into RNNs. LSTMs make it much easier to get good results when training RNNs, and many recent papers make use of LSTMs or related ideas.

The Search for Study on the Construction Process and Changes in the Landscape Plants of the Pasanseodang ('파산서당'의 영건과정과 조경식물 변화상 탐색)

  • Joo, Been;Choi, Hayoung;Shin, Sangsup
    • Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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    • v.51 no.1
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    • pp.48-65
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    • 2018
  • The authors of this paper aim to make a record of the construction process, its symbolic meaning, and the changes in the status of the landscape plants at the Pasanseodang according to the Report on the Pasanseodang written by Park Gyu-hyun in 1874. First, the construction of Samgahun Pavilion, which is located in Myo-ri, Habin-myun, Dalsung-gun, Daegu, took about 90 years and spanned the lifetimes of Park Sungsoo, an 11th-generation descendant of Park Paengnyun (1417~1456) through to Park Kyuhyun, a 14th-generation descendant. It was called the shape of dragon, with its head facing the tail (回龍顧尾形), in feng shui. Second, the village of Pahwoe was founded in 1769, the 45th year of the reign of King Yeongjo, by Park Sungsoo for the purpose of socializing with his friends at his thatched home, and was named after his own courtesy name (Samgahun). Park Kwangseok, the second son of Park Sungsoo, built the sarangchae in 1826 and the anchae in 1869 after his marriage (in 1783). Then, Park Kyuhyun, the grandson of Park Kwangseok, built the pond and planted it with lotus flowers, and built the Hayeopjeong in 1874. The Pasanseodang, as the precursor of the Hayeopjeong, may be related with the name of the hillside region behind Samgahun. Third, a quadrangular-shaped pond with a length of 21m and a width of 15m was also built and planted with lotus flowers. In the center of the pond is a small round island that reflects the world view of the Chosun dynasty, i.e. that the sky is round and the landmass is quadrangular. Meanwhile, the name of the Hayeopjeon reflects the value system of aristocrats who lived a life of leisure and artistic indulgence. They called the eastern room "Yeeyeonhun" (怡燕軒) and the western room "Mongyangjae" (蒙養齋), names which embody their wishes for a good life as a member of the nobility and a bright future for one's descendants. Fourth, in Confucian terms, the authors infer the points of view reflected in the kinds of trees that were planted according to Confucian norms (pine tree, lotus, bamboo), the living philosophy of sustainability (willow), the ideology of seclusion and the search for peace of mind (bamboo), and relief efforts for the poor and a life of practicality (chestnut, oak, wild walnut, lacquer). The authors assert that this way of planting trees was a highly effective design feature of landscape architecture that drew on the locational and symbolic significance of the Seodang. Fifth, the majority of the trees that were initially planted withered and were replaced with different species, except for the locust and lotus, at this point. Nevertheless, a review of the process of construction, symbolic meaning, and original architectural landscape of the Samgahun is of value in demonstrating the extended symbolic meaning of their descendants in terms of the practical loss of the function of the Seodang, the values of Feng Sui (red in the east, white in the west, based on the principles of Feng Sui), the function of repelling evils spirits (kalopanax, trifoliate orange), aesthetic and practical values (sweetbrier, apricot, pear, peach, and oriental oak trees), and the prosperity of the family and the timeless value of honest poverty (silk, crape myrtle, and yew trees).

Analysis of Reform Model to Records Management System in Public Institution -from Reform to Records Management System in 2006- (행정기관의 기록관리시스템 개선모델 분석 -2006년 기록관리시스템 혁신을 중심으로-)

  • Kwag, Jeong
    • The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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    • no.14
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    • pp.153-190
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    • 2006
  • Externally, business environment in public institution has being changed as government business reference model(BRM) appeared and business management systems for transparency of a policy decision process are introduced. After Records Automation System started its operation, dissatisfaction grows because of inadequacy in system function and the problems about authenticity of electronic records. With these backgrounds, National Archives and Records Service had carried out 'Information Strategy Planning for Reform to Records Management System' for 5 months from September, 2005. As result, this project reengineers current records management processes and presents the world-class system model. After Records and Archives Management Act was made, the records management in public institution has propelled the concept that paper records are handled by means of the electric data management. In this reformed model, however, we concentrates on the electric records, which have gradually replaced the paper records and investigate on the management methodology considering attributes of electric records. According to this new paradigm, the electric records management raises a new issue in the records management territory. As the major contents of the models connecting with electric records management were analyzed and their significance and bounds were closely reviewed, the aim of this paper is the understanding of the future bearings of the management system. Before the analysis of the reformed models, issues in new business environments and their records management were reviewed. The government's BRM and Business management system prepared the general basis that can manage government's whole results on the online and classify them according to its function. In this points, the model is innovative. However considering the records management, problems such as division into Records Classification, definitions and capturing methods of records management objects, limitations of Records Automation System and so on was identified. For solving these problems, the reformed models that has a records classification system based on the business classification, extended electronic records filing system, added functions for strengthening electric records management and so on was proposed. As regards dramatically improving the role of records center in public institution, searching for the basic management methodology of the records management object from various agency and introducing the detail design to keep documents' authenticity, this model forms the basis of the electric records management system. In spite of these innovations, however, the proposed system for real electric records management era is still in its beginning. In near feature, when the studies is concentrated upon the progress of qualified classifications, records capturing plans for foreign records structures such like administration information system, the further study of the previous preservation technology, the developed prospective of electric records management system will be very bright.

A Study on the Structure and Function of the Underground Storage Facility in Baekje (백제 지하저장시설(地下貯藏施設)의 구조와 기능에 대한 검토)

  • Shin, Jong-Kuk
    • Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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    • v.38
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    • pp.129-156
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    • 2005
  • Increasing discovery cases of underground storage facilities made of earth, wood, or stone are being reported from the recent excavation survey of the Baekje relics. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to examine the structure and function of the underground storage facilities of Baekje following a classification made by the type and building method as follows: plask shape, wooden box shape, and stone box shape. The plask shape storage is the most representative underground storage of Baekje that has been found in numerous relics more than 600 sets around Hangang(Han River) and Geumgang(Geum River) from the Hansung period to Sabi period in Baekje Dynasty. It is a historical artefact as a part of the unique storage culture of Baekje around Hangang and Geumgang from the 3rd to 7th Century. Considering its structure and the example of Chinese one, it might had been used for a long-term storage of grains and various other items including earth wares. The storage facility in wooden box shape and stone box shape are found mostly in the relics Of Sabi period. Thus it might had taken some functions of the storage in traditional pouch shape which had decreased after the 6th Century. In particular, the wooden box shape and stone box shape storage required enormous labor force to build owing to their structure and building method. Thus, they were considered to had been used for official purposes in province fortress and citadel artefact. The wooden box shape storage facility is classified into flat rectangular type and square type based on the structure, and into Gagu type(架構式) and Juheol type(柱穴式) based on the building method. It might had been decided according to the geography and geological feature of the place where the storage was to be built. Considering the examples of Gwanbuk-ri relics and Weolpyong-dong relics, the wooden box shape storage facility might had been used for various items depending on the needs, including foods such as fruits and essential provisions at the military base. Considering the long-term food storage, the examples in Japan, and the functional characteristics of the underground storage facility, there is a possibility that the wooden and stone box shape storage facilities had been built so as to safely store important items in case of fire. This study is only a rudimentary examination for the storage facility in Baekje. Thus further studies are to be made specifically and comprehensively on the comparison with other regions, distribution pattern, discovered relics and artefacts, and functions.

A study on the improvement of distribution system by overseas agricultural investment (해외농업투자에 따른 유통체계 개선방안에 관한 연구)

  • Sun, Il-Suck;Lee, Dong-Ok
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.8 no.3
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    • pp.17-26
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    • 2010
  • Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.

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Automatic gasometer reading system using selective optical character recognition (관심 문자열 인식 기술을 이용한 가스계량기 자동 검침 시스템)

  • Lee, Kyohyuk;Kim, Taeyeon;Kim, Wooju
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.26 no.2
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    • pp.1-25
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    • 2020
  • In this paper, we suggest an application system architecture which provides accurate, fast and efficient automatic gasometer reading function. The system captures gasometer image using mobile device camera, transmits the image to a cloud server on top of private LTE network, and analyzes the image to extract character information of device ID and gas usage amount by selective optical character recognition based on deep learning technology. In general, there are many types of character in an image and optical character recognition technology extracts all character information in an image. But some applications need to ignore non-of-interest types of character and only have to focus on some specific types of characters. For an example of the application, automatic gasometer reading system only need to extract device ID and gas usage amount character information from gasometer images to send bill to users. Non-of-interest character strings, such as device type, manufacturer, manufacturing date, specification and etc., are not valuable information to the application. Thus, the application have to analyze point of interest region and specific types of characters to extract valuable information only. We adopted CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) based object detection and CRNN (Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network) technology for selective optical character recognition which only analyze point of interest region for selective character information extraction. We build up 3 neural networks for the application system. The first is a convolutional neural network which detects point of interest region of gas usage amount and device ID information character strings, the second is another convolutional neural network which transforms spatial information of point of interest region to spatial sequential feature vectors, and the third is bi-directional long short term memory network which converts spatial sequential information to character strings using time-series analysis mapping from feature vectors to character strings. In this research, point of interest character strings are device ID and gas usage amount. Device ID consists of 12 arabic character strings and gas usage amount consists of 4 ~ 5 arabic character strings. All system components are implemented in Amazon Web Service Cloud with Intel Zeon E5-2686 v4 CPU and NVidia TESLA V100 GPU. The system architecture adopts master-lave processing structure for efficient and fast parallel processing coping with about 700,000 requests per day. Mobile device captures gasometer image and transmits to master process in AWS cloud. Master process runs on Intel Zeon CPU and pushes reading request from mobile device to an input queue with FIFO (First In First Out) structure. Slave process consists of 3 types of deep neural networks which conduct character recognition process and runs on NVidia GPU module. Slave process is always polling the input queue to get recognition request. If there are some requests from master process in the input queue, slave process converts the image in the input queue to device ID character string, gas usage amount character string and position information of the strings, returns the information to output queue, and switch to idle mode to poll the input queue. Master process gets final information form the output queue and delivers the information to the mobile device. We used total 27,120 gasometer images for training, validation and testing of 3 types of deep neural network. 22,985 images were used for training and validation, 4,135 images were used for testing. We randomly splitted 22,985 images with 8:2 ratio for training and validation respectively for each training epoch. 4,135 test image were categorized into 5 types (Normal, noise, reflex, scale and slant). Normal data is clean image data, noise means image with noise signal, relfex means image with light reflection in gasometer region, scale means images with small object size due to long-distance capturing and slant means images which is not horizontally flat. Final character string recognition accuracies for device ID and gas usage amount of normal data are 0.960 and 0.864 respectively.

A Critical Evaluation of the Correlation Between Biomarkers of Folate and Vitamin $B_{12}$ in Nutritional Homocysteinemia (엽산과 비타민 $B_{12}$ 결핍에 의한 호모시스테인혈증 흰쥐의 조직내 비타민 지표간의 상관관계 분석)

  • Min, Hye-Sun;Kim, Mi-Sook
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.42 no.5
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    • pp.423-433
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    • 2009
  • Folate and vitamin $B_{12}$ are essential cofactors for homocysteine (Hcy) metabolism. Homocysteinemia has been related with cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease. We examined the effect of folate and/or vitamin $B_{12}$ deficiency on biomarkers of one carbon metabolism in blood, liver and brain, and analyzed the correlation between vitamin biomarkers in mild and moderate homocysteinemia. In this study, Sprague-Dawley male rats (5 groups, n = 10) were fed folatesufficient diet (FS), folate-deficient diet (FD) with 0 or 3 g homocystine (FSH and FDH), and folate-/vitamin $B_{12}$-deficient diet with 3 g homocystine (FDHCD) for 8 weeks. The FDH diet induced mild homocysteinemia (plasma Hcy 17.41 ${\pm}$ 1.94 nmol/mL) and the FDHCD diet induced moderate homocysteinemia (plasma Hcy 44.13 ${\pm}$ 2.65 nmol/mL), respectively. Although liver and brain folate levels were significantly lower compared with those values of rats fed FS or FSH (p < 0.001, p < 0.01 respectively), there were no significant differences in folate levels in liver and brain among the rats fed FD, FDH and FDHCD diet. However, rats fed FDHCD showed higher plasma folate levels (126.5 ${\pm}$ 9.6 nmol/L) compared with rats fed FD and FDH (21.1 ${\pm}$ 1.4 nmol/L, 22.0 ${\pm}$ 2.2 nmol/L)(p < 0.001), which is the feature of "ethyl-folate trap"by vitamin $B_{12}$ deficiency. Plasma Hcy was correlated with hepatic folate (r = -0.641, p < 0.01) but not with plasma folate or brain folate in this experimental condition. However, as we eliminated FDHCD group during correlation test, plasma Hcy was correlated with plasma folate (r = -0.581, p < 0.01), hepatic folate (r = -0.684, p < 0.01) and brain folate (r = -0.321, p < 0.05). Hepatic S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) level was lower in rats fed FD, FDH and FDHCD than in rats fed FS and FSH (p < 0.001, p < 0.001 respectively) and hepatic S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) level was significantly higher in those groups. The SAH level in brain was also significantly increased in rats fed FDHCD (p < 0.05). However, brain SAM level was not affected by folate and/or vitamin $B_{12}$ deficiency. This result suggests that dietary folate- and vitamin B12-deficiency may inhibit methylation in brain by increasing SAH rather than decreasing SAM level, which may be closely associated with impaired cognitive function in nutritional homocysteinemia.

Ultrastructural Differentiation of the Vacuole in Mesophyll Tissues of Orostachys (바위솔속 엽육조직 세포 내 액포의 미세구조 분화 양상)

  • Kim, In-Sun
    • Applied Microscopy
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    • v.39 no.4
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    • pp.333-340
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    • 2009
  • In the present study, ultrastructural features of the mesophyll tissue have been investigated in Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM)-performing succulent Orostachys. A large central vacuole and numerous small vacuoles in the peripheral cytoplasm were characterized at the subcellular level in both developing and mature mesophyll cells. The most notable feature was the invagination of vacuolar membranes into the secondary vacuoles or multivesicular bodies. In many cases, tens of single, membrane-bound secondary vacuoles of various sizes were found to be formed within the central vacuole. multivesicular bodies containing numerous small vesicles were also distributed in the cytoplasm but were better developed within the central vacuole. Occasionally, electron-dense prevacuolar compartments, directly attached to structures appearing to be small vacuoles, were also detected in the cytoplasm. One or more huge central vacuoles were frequently observed in cells undergoing differentiation and maturation. Consistent with the known occurrence of morphologically distinct vacuoles within different tissues, two types of vacuoles, one representing lytic vacuoles and the other, most likely protein storage vacuoles, were noted frequently within Orostachys mesophyll. The two types coexisted in mature vegetative cells but did not merge during the study. Nevertheless, the coexistence of two distinct vacuole types in maturing cells implies the presence of more than one mechanism for vacuolar solute sorting in these species. The vacuolar membrane is known to be unique among the intracellular compartments for having different channels and/or pumps to maintain its function. In CAM plants, the vacuole is a very important organelle that regulates malic acid diurnal fluctuation to a large extent. The membrane invagination seen in Orostachys mesophyll likely plays a significant role in survival under the physiological drought conditions in which these Orostachys occur; by increasing to such a large vacuolar volume, the mesophyll cells are able to retain enormous amounts of acid when needed. Furthermore, the mesophyll cells are able to attain their large sizes with less energy expenditure in order to regulate the large degree of diurnal fluctuation of organic acid that occurs within the vacuoles of Orostachys.

Physicochemical and Biological Properties of Constructed Small-scale Ponds for Ecological Improvement in Paddy Fields (논 생태 증진을 위해 설치된 둠벙의 물리.화학적 및 생물학적 특성)

  • Kim, Jae-Ok;Shin, Hyun-Sang;Yoo, Ji-Hyun;Lee, Seung-Heon;Jang, Kyu-Sang;Kim, Bom-Chul
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.44 no.3
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    • pp.253-263
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    • 2011
  • This study was conducted to gain preliminary data for restoration and management of constructed small-scale ponds in paddy fields through analysis of their physicochemical and biological properties. A field survey was performed at 13 small-scale ponds located in paddy fields from August 2009 to October 2010. Structural properties, water quality, soil characteristics and fish fauna were measured. Results showed that small-scale ponds without frames might lose their function over time because of crumbling walls. Therefore, it is necessary for these ponds to have frames for soil protection and sustainable maintenance. Chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) concentration were higher than the water quality standard for agricultural water in small-scale ponds. In particular, TN concentration was 8.03 mg $L^{-1}$ and over 8 times the water quality standard because of the presence of livestock such as cows and pigs in the study areas. Sand, organic matter and available phosphorus contents of soil in small-scale ponds was 53.4${\pm}$16.6%, 21.8${\pm}$9.74 g $kg^{-1}$ and 12.8${\pm}$7.59 mg $kg^{-1}$, respectively indicating that sand and available phosphorus contents were suitable for plants in small-scale ponds, but organic matter contents was somewhat low in newly constructed small-scale ponds, and would take some time to stabilize for plant growing. Fish fauna was not diverse with only 4 species at all sites surveyed. Collected fishes share a common feature that they all inhabit paddy fields or canals with shallow water depth. In this study, all ponds were not linked to the streams and canals around them. It appears that connection to adjacent streams was the major factor controlling fish fauna in small-scale ponds. The results of statistical analysis were classified into three groups. Factor 1 was 26.3%, which shows a structural properties such as area and depth of small-scale pond. As for factor 2, it appears on 20.1%, showing water quality like a TP, suspended solids (SS) and COD. Small-scale ponds were classified into three groups by factor scores. Group I consisted of 6 small-scale ponds, which were larger than the others. Group III had higher water quality than the others. We conclude that the most important points to be considered for restoration and management of small-scale ponds is connection with adjacent streams or ditches and depth and size of the small-scale pond.

Relationships between Nailfold Plexus Visibility, and Clinical Variables and Neuropsychological Functions in Schizophrenic Patients (정신분열병 환자에서 손톱 주름 총 시도(叢 視度) (Nailfold Plexus Visibility)와 임상양상, 신경심리 기능과의 관계)

  • Kang, Dae-Yeob;Jang, Hye-Ryeon
    • Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.50-61
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    • 2002
  • Objectives:High nailfold plexus visibility can reflect central nervous system defects as an etiologic factor of schizophrenia indirectly. Previous studies suggest that this visibility is particularly related to the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and frontal lobe deficiency. In this study, we examined the relationships between nailfold plexus visibility, and various clinical variables and neuropsychological functions in schizo-phrenic patients. Methods:Forty patients(21males, 19 females) satisfying the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia and thirty eight normal controls(20 males, 18 females) were measured for Plexus Visualization Score(PVS) by using the capillary microscopic examination. For the assessment of psychopathology, process-reactivity, premorbid adjustment, and neuropsychological functions, we used Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS), Ullmann-Giovannoni Process-Reactive Questionnaire(PRQ), Phillips Premorbid Adjustment Scale(PAS), Korean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale(KWIS), Continuous Performance Test(CPT), Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST), and Word Fluency Test. We also collected data about clinical variables. Results:PVS was correlated with PANSS positive symptom score and composite score negatively. There were no correlations between PVS and PRQ score, PAS score and neuropsychological variables respectively. Conclusions:This study showed that nailfold plexus visibility was a characteristic feature in some schizophrenic patients, and that higher plexus visibility was associated with the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. There was no association between plexus visibility and neuropsychological functions.

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