• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.46.1-46.10
• /
• 2018

Objectives: This study was to evaluate the antibacterial effect of different instrumentation and irrigation techniques using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) after root canal inoculation with Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis). Materials and Methods: Mesiobuccal and mesiolingual canals of extracted mandibular molars were apically enlarged up to a size 25 hand K-file, then autoclaved and inoculated with E. faecalis. The samples were randomly divided into 4 main groups according to the system of instrumentation and irrigation: an XP-endo Shaper (XPS) combined with conventional irrigation (XPS/C) or an XP-endo Finisher (XPF) (XPS/XPF), and iRaCe combined with conventional irrigation (iRaCe/C) or combined with an XPF (iRaCe/XPF). A middle-third sample was taken from each group, and then the bacterial reduction was evaluated using CLSM at a depth of $50{\mu}m$ inside the dentinal tubules. The ratio of red fluorescence (dead cells) to green-and-red fluorescence (live and dead cells) represented the percentage of bacterial reduction. The data were then statistically analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test for comparisons across the groups and the Dunn test was used for pairwise comparisons. Results: The instrumentation and irrigation techniques had a significant effect on bacterial reduction (p < 0.05). The iRaCe/XPF group showed the strongest effect, followed by the XPS/XPF and XPS/C group, while the iRaCe/C group had the weakest effect. Conclusions: Combining iRaCe with XPF improved its bacterial reduction effect, while combining XPS with XPF did not yield a significant improvement in its ability to reduce bacteria at a depth of $50{\mu}m$ in the dentinal tubules.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.425-436
• /
• 2019

Botrytis cinerea, a major phytopathogenic fungus, has been reported to infect more than 200 crop species worldwide, and it causes massive losses in yield. The aim of this study was to evaluate the inhibitory abilities and effects of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens RS-25, Bacillus licheniformis MG-4, Bacillus subtilis Z-14, and Bacillus subtilis Pnf-4 and their culture filtrates and extracts against the gray mold caused by B. cinerea on postharvest tomato, strawberry, and grapefruit. The results revealed that the cells of Z-14, culture filtrate of RS-25, and cells of Z-14 showed the strongest biocontrol activity against the gray mold on the strawberry, grape, and tomato fruit, respectively. All the strains produced volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and the VOCs of Pnf-4 displayed the highest inhibition values. Based on headspace solid-phase microextraction in combination with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, esters accounted for the largest percentage of the VOCs produced by RS-25, MG-4, Z-14, and Pnf-4 (36.80%, 29.58%, 30.78%, and 36.26%, respectively). All the strains showed potent cellulase and protease activities, but no chitinase activity. RS-25, Z-14, and MG-4, but not Pnf-4, grew on chrome azurol S agar, and an orange halo was formed around the colonies. All the strains showed biofilm formation, fruit colonization, and lipopeptide production, which may be the main modes of action of the antagonists against B. cinerea on the fruit. This study provides the basis for developing natural biocontrol agents against the gray mold caused by B. cinerea on postharvest fruit.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.55 no.3
• /
• pp.258-267
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) on the growth and biogenic amines (BA) formation of Enterobacter aerogenes CIH05 in skim milk and soymilk. Lactobacillus acidophilus GK20, Lactobacillus paracasei GK74, and Lactobacillus plantarum GK81 isolated from mustard kimchi did not produce BA in the decarboxylation broth. L. paracasei GK74 exhibited the highest cell viability and antimicrobial compounds producing ability in fermented skim milk and soymilk samples, while the lowest producer was L. plantarum GK81. The production yield of lactic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and bacteriocin was dependent on the species of Lactobacillus and the type of culture medium. As LAB the number of viable cells of E. aerogenes CIH05 were higher in skim milk than in soymilk. When mixed culture with L. acidophilus GK20 and L. paracasei GK74 and treated with bacteriocin solution (300 AU/ml) obtained from these strains in milk media, the cell growth and cadaverine and histamine contents of E. aerogenes CIH05 were significantly (P < 0.05) lower than the respective values in control sample.

• Journal of Apiculture
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.107-115
• /
• 2019

Bumblebees have apposition compound eyes (one on either side of the head) of about 6,000 ommatidia and three small single-lens ocelli on the frons of their head capsule. The surface of the eye is smooth and interommatidial hairs, as in the honeybee, are not developed. Each ommatidium (approx. 26 ㎛ in diameter) is capped by a hexagonal facet and contains in its centre a 3 ㎛ wide, columnar light-perceiving structure known as the rhabdom. Rhabdoms consist of thousands of regularly aligned, fingerlike microvilli, which in their membranes contain the photopigment molecules. Axons from each ommatidium transmit the information of their photic environment to the visual centres of the brain, where behavioural reactions may be initiated. Since bumblebee eyes possess three classes of spectrally different sensitivity peaks in a ratio of 1:1:6 (UV= 353 nm, blue= 430 nm and green=548 nm) per ommatidium, they use colour vision to find and select flower types that yield pollen and nectar. Ommatidial acceptance angles of at least 3° are used by the bumblebees to discriminate between different flower shapes and sizes, but their ability to detect polarized light appears to be used only for navigational purposes. A flicker fusion frequency of around 110Hz helps the fast flying bumblebee to avoid obstacles. The small ocelli are strongly sensitive to ultraviolet radiation and green wavelengths and appear to act as sensors for light levels akin to a photometer. Unlike the bumblebee's compound eyes, the ocelli would, however, be incapable of forming a useful image.

• Animal Bioscience
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.489-498
• /
• 2021

Objective: Milk production is one of the most desirable traits in livestock. Recently, the toll-like receptor (TLR) has been identified as a candidate gene for milk traits in cows. So far, there is no information concerning the contribution of this gene in milk traits in sheep. This study was designed to investigate the TLR 4 gene polymorphisms in Barki ewes in Egypt and then correlate that with milk traits in order to identify potential single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for these traits in sheep. Methods: A part of the ovine TLR 4 gene was amplified in Barki ewes, to identify the SNPs. Consequently; Barki ewes were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism protocol. These genotypes were correlated with milk traits, which were the daily milk yield (DMY), protein percentage (PP), fat percentage (FP), lactose percentage, and total solid percentage (TSP). Results: Age and parity of the ewe had a significant effect (p<0.05 or p<0.01) on DMY, FP, and TSP. The direct sequencing identified a missense mutation located in the coding sequence of the gene (rs592076818; c.1710C>A) and was predicted to change the amino acid sequence of the resulted protein (p.Asn570Lys). The association analyses suggested a significant effect (p<0.05) of the TLR genotype on the FP and PP, while the DMY tended to be influenced as well (p = 0.07). Interestingly, the presence of the G allele tended to increase the DMY (+40.5 g/d) and significantly (p<0.05 or p<0.01) decreased the FP (-1.11%), PP (-1.21%), and TSP (-7.98%). Conclusion: The results of this study suggested the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) as a candidate gene to improve milk traits in sheep worldwide, which will enhance the ability to understand the genetic architecture of genes underlying SNPs that affect such traits.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.48-57
• /
• 2023

One of the ways to increase the production for aquaculture is through the cultivation of monosexuals by ensuring genital reversal from which energy for reproduction is diverted towards growth. Masculinization has been identified as one of the most prominent techniques, where sex development was directed from female to male. This approach only altered the phenotype and not the genotype. The red claw crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus) was a relatively new commercial commodity, and the males were known to grow faster than females. Hence, it was proposed to use monocultures comprising an all-male population to increase yield using steroid hormone, synthetic 17α-methyltestosterone. However, this technique generated residues that detrimentally affect human health, the environment, and cultivated organisms. Therefore, finding new safe natural steroid sources was essential, and one of which is exploring of natural hormones extracted from the viscera of sea cucumbers (Holothuria scabra Jaeger). This study focused on the determination of male formation and testosterone levels among juvenile crayfish, after immersing in sea cucumber steroid extract (SCSE). A completely random design with factorial was used with two variables, encompassing the varied doses (0, 2, 4 mg/L, 2 mg/L 17α-methyl testosterone as control group) and immersion times of 18 and 30 h. The result showed the dose-dependent ability of SCSE increase the male genital formation and promote the testosterone level of juvenile crayfish. In addition, the testosterone was influenced by dose and immersion duration time, with the highest level of testosterone observed in treatments of 4 mg/L SCSE with 30 h immersion was 0.248 ng/mL, while the male percentage was 77%. In conclusion, the combination of dose and immersion time significantly affected growth and testosterone levels.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
• /
• 2022.10a
• /
• pp.144-144
• /
• 2022

The amount of required forage is increasing by 20% every year in South Korea, but the cultivation area for forage production is limited. The yield ability of triticale forage is the highest among the winter forage crops including rye and the crop has cold tolerance within the average low temperature of -10℃ in January. Therefore, this study analyzed effects of sowing and harvesting times on feed value and quality for efficiently using and supplying triticale as livestock feed. Seed of the triticales, 'Joseong' was sown in 2021 fall (October) and 2022 spring (March). The triticales were harvested according to growth stages: seedling stage, booting stage, heading stage, 10 days after heading, and 20 days after heading. Moisture contents of each harvested triticales were adjusted to about 60%, and then the triticales were fermented for 40 days at room temperature under anaerobic conditions as silage. We have analyzed pH and organic acid to determine the feed value and quality of each silage. The contents of lactic acid in silage ofthe triticale harvested at the seedling stage of both fall and spring-sown (1.61%, 1.63%) were the highest among all of the silages; the booting stage (0.75%, 1.33%), the heading stage (0.50%, 0.69%), 10 days after the heading stage (0.31%, 0.42%), and 20 days after heading stage (0.22%, 0.40%). Such as the contents of lactic acid in the silages, and the pH value of the silages The pH value in both the fall- and spring-sown became lower as the triticale was grown up: seedling stage (7.05, 6.85), booting stage (6.21, 6.75), heading stage (6.18, 6.28), 10 days after heading stage (6.22, 6.17), and 20 days after heading stage (6.15, 5.81). Taken together, the results showed that the feed value and quality of triticale silage were more affected by harvesting time than sowing time.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.49 no.4
• /
• pp.381-392
• /
• 2023

This study experimentally investigates the flexural behavior of steel-UHPC composite slabs composed of an innovative negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) steel plate and Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC) slab connected via demountable high-strength bolt shear connectors. Eight demountable composite slab specimens were fabricated and tested under traditional four-point bending method. The effects of loading histories (positive and negative bending moment), types of steel plate (NPR steel plate and Q355 steel plate) and spacings of high-strength bolts (150 mm, 200 mm and 250 mm) on the flexural behavior of demountable composite slab, including failure mode, load-deflection curve, interface relative slip, crack width and sectional strain distribution, were evaluated. The results revealed that under positive bending moment, the failure mode of composite slabs employing NPR steel plate was distinct from that with Q355 steel plate, which exhibited that part of high-strength bolts was cut off, part of pre-embedded padded extension nuts was pulled out, and UHPC collapsed due to instantaneous instability and etc. Besides, under the same spacing of high-strength bolts, NPR steel plate availably delayed and restrained the relative slip between steel plate and UHPC plate, thus significantly enhanced the cooperative deformation capacity, flexural stiffness and load capacity for composite slabs further. While under negative bending moment, NPR steel plate effectively improved the flexural capacity and deformation characteristics of composite slabs, but it has no obvious effect on the initial flexural stiffness of composite slabs. Meanwhile, the excellent crack-width control ability for UHPC endowed composite members with better durability. Furthermore, according to the sectional strain distribution analysis, due to the negative Poisson's ratio effect and high yield strength of NPR steel plate, the tensile strain between NPR steel plate and UHPC layer held strain compatibility during the whole loading process, and the magnitude of upward movement for sectional plastic neutral axis could be ignored with the increase of positive bending moment.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.456-477
• /
• 2024

With information technology's rapid development, the Internet faces serious security problems. Studies have shown that malware has become a primary means of attacking the Internet. Therefore, adversarial samples have become a vital breakthrough point for studying malware. By studying adversarial samples, we can gain insights into the behavior and characteristics of malware, evaluate the performance of existing detectors in the face of deceptive samples, and help to discover vulnerabilities and improve detection methods for better performance. However, existing adversarial sample generation methods still need help regarding escape effectiveness and mobility. For instance, researchers have attempted to incorporate perturbation methods like Fast Gradient Sign Method (FGSM), Projected Gradient Descent (PGD), and others into adversarial samples to obfuscate detectors. However, these methods are only effective in specific environments and yield limited evasion effectiveness. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes a malware adversarial sample generation method (PixGAN) based on the pixel attention mechanism, which aims to improve adversarial samples' escape effect and mobility. The method transforms malware into grey-scale images and introduces the pixel attention mechanism in the Deep Convolution Generative Adversarial Networks (DCGAN) model to weigh the critical pixels in the grey-scale map, which improves the modeling ability of the generator and discriminator, thus enhancing the escape effect and mobility of the adversarial samples. The escape rate (ASR) is used as an evaluation index of the quality of the adversarial samples. The experimental results show that the adversarial samples generated by PixGAN achieve escape rates of 97%, 94%, 35%, 39%, and 43% on the Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Convolutional Neural Network and Recurrent Neural Network (CNN_RNN), and Convolutional Neural Network and Long Short Term Memory (CNN_LSTM) algorithmic detectors, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.223-234
• /
• 2024

This review explores the potential of pillared bentonite materials as solid acid catalysts for synthesizing diethyl ether, a promising renewable energy source. Diethyl ether offers numerous environmental benefits over fossil fuels, such as lower emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and carbon oxides (CO_x) gases and enhanced fuel properties, like high volatility and low flash point. Generally, the synthesis of diethyl ether employs homogeneous acid catalysts, which pose environmental impacts and operational challenges. This review discusses bentonite, a naturally occurring alumina silicate, as a heterogeneous acid catalyst due to its significant cation exchange capacity, porosity, and ability to undergo modifications such as pillarization. Pillarization involves intercalating polyhydroxy cations into the bentonite structure, enhancing surface area, acidity, and thermal stability. Despite the potential advantages, challenges remain in optimizing the yield and selectivity of diethyl ether production using pillared bentonite. The review highlights the need for further research using various metal oxides in the pillarization process to enhance surface properties and acidity characteristics, thereby improving the catalytic performance of bentonite for the synthesis of diethyl ether. This development could lead to more efficient, environmentally friendly synthesis processes, aligning with sustainable energy goals.