• Journal of Embryo Transfer
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.121-126
• /
• 2007

The objective of this study was carried out to examine the selection effects of in vitro matured porcine follicular oocytes with polar body extrusion and early cleavage as non-invasive marker to know the developmental competence in advance. The porcine oocytes matured for 48 h were examined the polar body extrusion. The examined oocytes were matured for additional $16{\sim}18h$ and activated with 7% ethanol and cultured in $5{\mu}g/ml$ cytochalasin B for 5 h for diploid formation. The treated oocytes were cultured and examined the cleavage after 48 h and continued culturing for 5 days. The oocytes of 21.9% were discarded in morphological selection and 32.1% oocytes were discarded by failure of first polar body extrusion. The selected oocytes were matured and activated and then after 48 h the cleavage rates were examined. In morphologically selected oocytes, 15.8% oocytes were not cleaved and 52.6% oocytes were normally cleaved and 31.6% oocytes were hyper-cleaved over 8-cell stage. However in the first polar body extruded oocytes, 7.1% oocytes were not cleaved and 73.1% oocytes were normally cleaved and 19.8% oocytes were hyper-cleaved. The morphologically selected embryos that not cleavage-selected were developed in 16.7% up to blastocyst and the morphologically selected and cleavage-selected embryos were developed in 31.7%. The polar body extruded oocytes that were not carried out cleavage selection were developed in 39.0% and the polar body extruded and cleavage-selected embryos were developed 49.0%. The first cleavage timing was examined with 12 h interval after activation. In $0{\sim}12,\;12{\sim}24,\;24{\sim}36,\;and\;36{\sim}48h$ intervals, 4.1%, 68.6%, 19.1%, and 2.3% oocytes were cleaved and 5.9% oocytes were not cleaved until 48 after activation. The cleaved oocytes in each interval were cultured and developed upto blastocyst with 0, 39.1, 9.5, and 0%, respectively. This results suggests that polar body extruded and cleaved at $12{\sim}36h$ embryo has higher developmental potential than the others.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.53-69
• /
• 2011

Vision and voice-based technologies are commonly utilized for human-robot interaction. But it is widely recognized that the performance of vision and voice-based interaction systems is deteriorated by a large margin in the real-world situations due to environmental and user variances. Human users need to be very cooperative to get reasonable performance, which significantly limits the usability of the vision and voice-based human-robot interaction technologies. As a result, touch screens are still the major medium of human-robot interaction for the real-world applications. To empower the usability of robots for various services, alternative interaction technologies should be developed to complement the problems of vision and voice-based technologies. In this paper, we propose the use of accelerometer-based gesture interface as one of the alternative technologies, because accelerometers are effective in detecting the movements of human body, while their performance is not limited by environmental contexts such as lighting conditions or camera's field-of-view. Moreover, accelerometers are widely available nowadays in many mobile devices. We tackle the problem of classifying acceleration signal patterns of 26 English alphabets, which is one of the essential repertoires for the realization of education services based on robots. Recognizing 26 English handwriting patterns based on accelerometers is a very difficult task to take over because of its large scale of pattern classes and the complexity of each pattern. The most difficult problem that has been undertaken which is similar to our problem was recognizing acceleration signal patterns of 10 handwritten digits. Most previous studies dealt with pattern sets of 8~10 simple and easily distinguishable gestures that are useful for controlling home appliances, computer applications, robots etc. Good features are essential for the success of pattern recognition. To promote the discriminative power upon complex English alphabet patterns, we extracted 'motion trajectories' out of input acceleration signal and used them as the main feature. Investigative experiments showed that classifiers based on trajectory performed 3%~5% better than those with raw features e.g. acceleration signal itself or statistical figures. To minimize the distortion of trajectories, we applied a simple but effective set of smoothing filters and band-pass filters. It is well known that acceleration patterns for the same gesture is very different among different performers. To tackle the problem, online incremental learning is applied for our system to make it adaptive to the users' distinctive motion properties. Our system is based on instance-based learning (IBL) where each training sample is memorized as a reference pattern. Brute-force incremental learning in IBL continuously accumulates reference patterns, which is a problem because it not only slows down the classification but also downgrades the recall performance. Regarding the latter phenomenon, we observed a tendency that as the number of reference patterns grows, some reference patterns contribute more to the false positive classification. Thus, we devised an algorithm for optimizing the reference pattern set based on the positive and negative contribution of each reference pattern. The algorithm is performed periodically to remove reference patterns that have a very low positive contribution or a high negative contribution. Experiments were performed on 6500 gesture patterns collected from 50 adults of 30~50 years old. Each alphabet was performed 5 times per participant using $Nintendo{(R)}$ $Wii^{TM}$ remote. Acceleration signal was sampled in 100hz on 3 axes. Mean recall rate for all the alphabets was 95.48%. Some alphabets recorded very low recall rate and exhibited very high pairwise confusion rate. Major confusion pairs are D(88%) and P(74%), I(81%) and U(75%), N(88%) and W(100%). Though W was recalled perfectly, it contributed much to the false positive classification of N. By comparison with major previous results from VTT (96% for 8 control gestures), CMU (97% for 10 control gestures) and Samsung Electronics(97% for 10 digits and a control gesture), we could find that the performance of our system is superior regarding the number of pattern classes and the complexity of patterns. Using our gesture interaction system, we conducted 2 case studies of robot-based edutainment services. The services were implemented on various robot platforms and mobile devices including $iPhone^{TM}$. The participating children exhibited improved concentration and active reaction on the service with our gesture interface. To prove the effectiveness of our gesture interface, a test was taken by the children after experiencing an English teaching service. The test result showed that those who played with the gesture interface-based robot content marked 10% better score than those with conventional teaching. We conclude that the accelerometer-based gesture interface is a promising technology for flourishing real-world robot-based services and content by complementing the limits of today's conventional interfaces e.g. touch screen, vision and voice.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.535-563
• /
• 1993

New techniques for regenerating the destructed periodontal tissue have been studied for many years. Current acceptable methods of promoting periodontal regeneration alre basis of removal of diseased soft tissue, root treatment, guided tissue regeneration, graft materials, biological mediators. Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is one of polypeptide growth factor. PDGF have been reported as a biological mediator which regulate activities of wound healing progress including cell proliferation, migration, and metabolism. The purposes of this study is to evaluate the possibility of using the PDGF as a regeneration promoting agent for furcation involvement defect. Eight adult mongrel dogs were used in this experiment. The dogs were anesthetized with Pentobarbital Sodium (25-30 mg/kg of body weight, Tokyo chemical Co., Japan) and conventional periodontal prophylaxis were performed with ultrasonic scaler. With intrasulcular and crestal incision, mucoperiosteal flap was elevated. Following decortication with 1/2 high speed round bur, degree III furcation defect was made on mandibular second(P2) and fourth(P4) premolar. For the basic treatment of root surface, fully saturated citric acid was applied on the exposed root surface for 3 minutes. On the right P4 20ug of human recombinant PDGF-BB dissolved in acetic acid was applied with polypropylene autopipette. On the left P2 and right P2 PDGF-BB was applied after insertion of ${\beta}-Tricalcium$ phosphate(TCP) and collagen (Collatape) respectively. Left mandibular P4 was used as control. Systemic antibiotics (Penicillin-G benzathine and penicillin-G procaine, 1 ml per 10-25 1bs body weight) were administrated intramuscular for 2 weeks after surgery. Irrigation with 0.1% Chlorhexidine Gluconate around operated sites was performed during the whole experimental period except one day immediate after surgery. Soft diets were fed through the whole experiment period. After 2, 4, 8, 12 weeks, the animals were sacrificed by perfusion technique. Tissue block was excised including the tooth and prepared for light microscope with H-E staining. At 2 weeks after surgery, therer were rapid osteogenesis phenomenon on the defected area of the PDGF only treated group and early trabeculation pattern was made with new osteoid tissue produced by activated osteoblast. Bone formation was almost completed to the fornix of furcation by 8 weeks after surgery. New cementum fromation was observed from 2 weeks after surgery, and the thickness was increased until 8 weeks with typical Sharpey’s fibers reembedded into new bone and cementum. In both PDGF-BB with TCP group and PDGF-BB with Collagen group, regeneration process including new bone and new cementum formation and the group especially in the early weeks. It might be thought that the migration of actively proliferating cells was prohibited by the graft materials. In conclusion, platelet-derived growth factor can promote rapid osteogenesis during early stage of periodontal tissue regeneration.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.58 no.1
• /
• pp.31-42
• /
• 2005

Background : Peroxiredoxins (Prxs) are a relatively newly recognized, novel family of peroxidases that reduce $H_2O_2$ and alkylhydroperoxide into water and alcohol, respectively. There are 6 known isoforms of Prxs present in human cells. Normally, Prxs exist in a head-to-tail homodimeric state in a reduced form. However, in the presence of excess $H_2O_2$, it can be oxidized on its catalytically active cysteine site into inactive oxidized forms. This study surveyed the types of the Prx isoforms present in the pulmonary epithelial, macrophage, endothelial, and other cell lines and observed their response to oxidative stress. Methods : This study examined the effect of exogenous, excess $H_2O_2$ on the Prxs of established cell lines originating from the pulmonary epithelium, macrophages, and other cell lines, which are known to be exposed to high oxygen partial pressures or are believed to be subject to frequent oxidative stress, using non-reducing SDS polyacrylamide electrophoresis (PAGE) and 2 dimensional electrophoresis. Result : The addition of excess $H_2O_2$ to the culture media of the various cell-lines caused the immediate inactivation of Prxs, as evidenced by their inability to form dimers by a disulfide cross linkage. This was detected as a subsequent shift to its monomeric forms on the non-reducing SDS PAGE. These findings were further confirmed by 2 dimensional electrophoresis and immunoblot analysis by a shift toward a more acidic isoelectric point (pI). However, the subsequent reappearance of the dimeric Prxs with a comparable, corresponding decrease in the monomeric bands was noted on the non-reducing SDS PAGE as early as 30 minutes after the $H_2O_2$ treatment suggesting regeneration after oxidation. The regenerated dimers can again be converted to the inactivated form by a repeated $H_2O_2$ treatment, indicating that the protein is still catalytically active. The recovery of Prxs to the original dimeric state was not inhibited by a pre-treatment with cycloheximide, nor by a pretreatment with inhibitors of protein synthesis, which suggests that the reappearance of dimers occurs via a regeneration process rather than via the de novo synthesis of the active protein. Conclusion : The cells, in general, appeared to be equipped with an established system for regenerating inactivated Prxs, and this system may function as a molecular "on-off switch" in various oxidative signal transduction processes. The same mechanisms might applicable other proteins associated with signal transduction where the active catalytic site cysteines exist.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.56-68
• /
• 1989

aA series of experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of plant growth regulator treatments on the growth and lateral root formation in soybean sprouts in order to establish the effective method of producing root-less or short-rooted soybean sprouts with larger diameter in the hypocotyl. Major results can be summarized as follows. 1. Soybean sprouts showed fairly uniform elongation rate from 3 to g days after imbibition with daily increase of 3.8cm. The speed of elongation of hypocotyl was reduced whereas that of root accelerated 7 days after imbibition. Lateral roots began to emerge fairly evenly from 5 to 9 days after imbibition with a daily increase of 4.4. 2. Auxins(IAA, IBA, NAA, 2,4-D) inhibited hypocotyl elongation and formation of lateral roots and increased hypocotyl diameter without influencing root length and hook diameter at higher concentrations. The dry weight of cotyledon was increased significantly as compared to that of hypocotyl and root. Among the tested auxins, 2, 4-D was the most effective. 3. BA and 4PU-30 significantly reduced elongation of hypocotyl and root and resulted in the biggest diameter of hypocotyl when treated at higher concentrations. The lowest effective concentration of BA to prevent the formation of larval gal roots was 12.5ppm. The formation of lateral roots could be completely prevented by BA and 4PU-30 treatment but kinetin, zeatin, zeatin riboside resulted in many lateral roots and increased thickness of soybean sprouts with little influence. Cotyledon deformation was found in soybean sprouts treated by 4PU-30. 4. 2, 4-D was the most effective for increasing the hypocotyl diameter while 4PU-30 was the most effective for reducing no. of lateral roots. 5. It can be concluded that among the plant growth regulators tested, BA was effective in reducing root length and increasing hypocotyl diameter. BA 12.5 ppm or 15 ppm may thus be the more practical for production of soybean sprouts. 6. ABA showed no significant effect of growth parameter, however ABA 25 ppm inhibited only no of lateral roots with little influence on the growth of seedling. 7. Ethephon inhibited the elongation of hypocotyl and root and increased hypocotyl diameter at higher concentrations. 8. The combined effect of cytokinins and ethephon was very similar to result of BA treatment alone. As the ethephon concentration increased, hypocotyl diameter and dry weight of cotyledon tended to increase.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.97-119
• /
• 1991

Effect of Streptococcus faecium(SF) and an antibiotic, Colistin(Col), supplemented to diets singly or in combination, on the performances and changes of intestinal population of microflora of broiler chicks studied. A total of 252, day-old chicks(Arbor Acre) of mixed sex(M：F＝1：1) were alloted into six groups. A diet with no Col and SF was referred as a control diet. The basal diets were added with two levels of SF, 0.04 and 0.08%, singly or in combination with Col 10ppm Another diet was prepared by adding only Col 10 ppm. Numbers of the microorganism in diets added with SF 0.04% and 0.08% were 7$\times$10$^{4}$ and 1.4$\times$10$^{5}$ /g diet respectively The diets consisting of corn and soybean meal as major ingredients were fed for a period of seven weeks . During the feeding trial, fresh excreta were sampled at the end of every week in a sterilized condition to count microbial changes from each dietary group. Microbial changes of large intestine were also measured from nine birds sacrificed at the end of the 4th and 7th weeks each time per dietary group. Excreta from all the groups were also collected quantitatively at the end of 3rd and 6th weeks to measure digestibility of the diets, At the end of 7th week, nine birds from each group were also sacrificed to measure weight changes of gastrointestinal tracts . Average body weight gains of broilers fed the diets added with SF 0.08% (2.37kg) or SF 0. 08%+col 10ppm(2.34kg) were significantly larger than that of the control(2.18kg). The weight gains of the other groups were not statistically different from that of the control Feed/gain ratios of the supplemental groups were better than that of control (P＜0.05) except that of birds fed the diet added only with SF 0.04%. Digestibilities of nutrients such as dry matter, crude protein, crude fat and total carbohydrates were not altered by the consumption of the diets added with SF and/or Col throughout the whole feeding period. As expected, the numbers of Streptococci in the excreta from birds fed diets added with SF increased significantly with a statistical difference between groups with SF 0.04% and SF 0.08% most of the time. However. addition of Colistin to the diets supplemented with SF did not give any effects on the number of the microorganism. Numbers of coliforms in the excreta were apparently reduced by feeding the diets added with SF and/or Col(P＜0.05). There were, however, no additive effects observed between the two feed additives in this regard when supplementing Col to the SF diets. Distributions of intestinal microflora exhibited exactly the same pattern as those of the excreta. Length of small intestine of the birds fed diets added with SF 0.08% with or without Col 10 ppm became significantly longer with a range of about 10% than those of the birds fed diets without SF. However, the empty weight of the small inestine of the former group was lighter than that of control These changes resulted in a significant reduction in weight/unit length of the intestine of the birds fed diets supplemented with Col and SF singly or in combination. In overall conclusion, diet added with SF 0.08% appeared most effective in improving broiler performances. Colistin added at a level of 10ppm was not beneficial at all in itself or in combination with SF in terms of broiler performances or changes of intestinal microflora population. The efficacy of SF and Col could be attributed to the changes of wall thickness of the small intestine.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.259-264
• /
• 2001

Typhoon and neap tide on Cochlodinium polykrikoides bloom and water temperature on disappearance of C. polykrikoides bloom were investigated to elucidate the outbreak mechanism of C. polykrikoides blooms at Naro and Namhae coastal area in South Sea of Korea. The first observation of C. polykrikoides blooms were observed when thermocline was disappeared by typhoon, tide, etc. The first blooms of C. polykrikoides were observed on neap tide or before one day from neap tide in 1996-1998 and 2000. However, thermocline was disappeared by typhoon in 1994 and 1999, the first blooms were observed early 12-30 day than 1996-1998 and 2000. The main reason of disappearance of C. polykrikoides blooms after typhoon on 1997-2000 seems to be other environmental change by typhoon rather than low water temperature. In the future, the first C. polykrikoides bloom will be appear around the first neap tide of latter part of August with breaking down of thermocline, but if the thermocline be collapsed by typhoon in July, the C. polykrikoides bloom will be appear at beginning of August. The outbreak of C. polykrikoides blooms will be explain as follows: The vegetative cells, which was germinated by environmental change or already exist in surface water at low level, input to the surface water, and then nutrients and trace metals which were suppled from out side of C. polykrikoides bloom area inflow to surface. The vegetative cells are growth by the nutrients and trace metals at suitable environmental conditions e.g. water temperature, salinity, and sufficient light.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.23 no.9
• /
• pp.1155-1162
• /
• 2013

Estrogen like activities were evaluated using ethanol and hot water extracts of gongjindan (GJD) and 3 types of brown algae by an in vitro detection system. Laminaria japonica and Undaria pinnatifida represented statistically significant (p<0.001) estrogen like activities, while GJD and Ecklonia stolonifera did not. Furthermore, activities of hot water extracts ($500{\mu}g/ml$) of Laminaria japonica and three mixture (Ecklonia stolonifera : Undaria pinnatifida : Laminaria japonica, 1: 1: 1) were stronger than that of $10^{-7}M$ $17{\beta}$-estradiol. These results suggest that Laminaria japonica contain estrogen like compounds. Based on these results, the prepared seaweed GJD were used for animal experiments about the effects on inhibition of platelet aggregation and serum lipid levels in ovariectomized rats. 9-week Old female SD-rats were randomly assigned to 3 groups as sham-operated rats, ovariectomized rats and ovariectomized rats that were treated with GJD. The rats were placed on prescribed diets for 5 weeks following ovariectomy. Total cholesterol and triglyceride contents on serum decreased in the SHAM group compared to the OVX-CON group. 5 weeks feeding of GJD resulted in significant lowering of triglyceride and a decreasing tendency of total cholesterol level. The level of HDL-cholesterol on serum increased significantly by feeding diets containing the GJD. The ability of platelet aggregation of group treated with GJD was less than that of the OVX-CON group. These results suggest that the beneficial effects of seaweed gongjindan may be used to improve menopausal syndrome.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
• /
• v.36 no.1 s.114
• /
• pp.55-62
• /
• 2006

Orthodontic mini-implants, despite its usefulness as anchorage, have some limits such as loosening. Therefore, various shapes and lengths have been studied. The aim of this study is to analyze the shape and length of mini-implants mechanically. The shapes of mini-implants (1.6 mm, Dual Top, Jeil Medical Co., Seoul, Korea) were cylindrical and taper. The lengths of mini-implants were 6 mm and 8 mm. The tested groups were 5 groups (cylindrical 6 mm, cylindrical 8 mm, taper 6 mm, taper 8 mm and taper 8 mm modified whose thread is reduced from the middle to upper part). All were inserted and removed on the polyurethane foam with the torque measured. During insertion and removal, the taper shape needed higher torque than the cylindrical shape, and the 8 mm length than the 6 mm length (p<0.001). The taper 6mm group showed superior insertion torque (p<0.001) and similar removal torque to the cylindrical 8 mm group. The taper 8 mm modified group with gradually reduced threads, showed continuous high removal torque after the peak. The initial mechanical stability can be provided by the tapered shape and also, affected by length and thread design.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
• /
• v.35 no.4 s.111
• /
• pp.286-294
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an electric toothbrush, with a specially designed orthodontic brush head, compared to a manual toothbrush on the periodontal health of patients with fixed orthodontic appliances Forty patients were randomly divided into two groups. the electric and the manual toothbrush groups, 1 month after attachment of fixed orthodontic appliances. Periodontal status was measured using a plaque index, a gingival index. a bleeding index, a pocket depth and a relative attachment loss, at baseline and after 3 months. 6 months, 9 mouths. and 12 mouths. The Braun Oral-B Plak Control with Ortho OD 15-1 brush head was used as the electric toothbrush while the Butler G.U.M 124 was given as the manual toothbrush. In the manual toothbrush group, the giugival and bleeding indices showed no statistically significant differences, but the plaque index was significantly decreased (P<0.001) and pocket depth as well as relative attachment loss were significantly increased (p<0.01). In the electric toothbrush group. the bleeding index, pocket depth and relative attachment loss showed no statistically significant differences. but the plaque and gingival indices were significantly decreased (p<0.001). In the case of the plaque. giugival and bleeding indices, there were no statistically significant differences between the electric and the manual toothbrush groups. On the contrary, in the case of pocket depth and relative attachment loss, there were statistically significant differences between the electric and the manual toothbrush groups: an increase in the manual toothbrush groups unlike the electric toothbrush group which kept the same state (P<0.05) These findings suggest that an electric toothbrush is useful for orthodontic patients with fixed appliances.