• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.261-271
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• 2017

It has been suggested that ginseng is beneficial for ameliorating the aging males' symptoms, such as weight gain, fatigue, erectile dysfunction, and depression, in elderly men with testosterone deficiency. We thus investigated the effects of Korean red ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer; Araliaceae) on obesity in a mouse model of testosterone deficiency (castrated C57BL/6J mice). The effects of ginseng extract (GE) and/or testosterone on obesity and adipogenesis in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed castrated C57BL/6J mice and 3T3-L1 adipocytes were examined using in vivo and in vitro approaches. After feeding mice a HFD for 8 weeks, we found that mice also receiving GE and/or testosterone showed decreased body weight, adipose tissue mass, adipocyte size, and hepatic lipid accumulation compared with untreated HFD-fed mice. Expression of adipogenic genes ($PPAR{\gamma}$, $C/EBP{\alpha}$, and aP2) was decreased by GE and/or testosterone in adipose tissues. Consistent with the in vivo data, lipid accumulation and the mRNA expression of adipogenesis genes in 3T3-L1 adipocytes were decreased by GE, ginsenosides, and testosterone. The inhibitory effects of GE (or ginsenosides) were comparable to those of testosterone, and the effects of co-treatment with GE (or ginsenosides) and testosterone were greater than those of testosterone alone in vivo and in vitro. Our results indicate that ginseng may be able to potentiate the inhibitory effects of testosterone on obesity and adipogenesis in HFD-fed castrated mice, providing possible therapeutic implications in men with testosterone deficiency.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.427-439
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• 2013

Carbon cycling and productivity within Weno Island of Micronesia enclosed by the coral reef may be likely self-maintained and insignificantly affected by the open ocean. Therefore, it is important to understand the role of the mangrove known as providing the organic matter and habitats for many organisms in this enclosed area. In order to trace the nutritional source of fauna (mostly invertebrates) in the mangrove forest of Weno island, we analyzed the fatty acid (FA) and carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of potential nutritional sources (mangrove leaf & pneumatophore, seagrass leaf & root, surface sediment, and particulate organic matter (POM) in water) and consumers (4 gastropods and anomura). The mangrove and seagrass contained the abundance of 18:2${\omega}$6, and 18:3${\omega}$3, whereas FAs associated with phytoplankton and bacteria were accounted for a high proportion in the surface sediment and POM. FA composition of consumers was found to be similar to those of the surface sediment, mangrove, and seagrass. These were also confirmed through the mixing model of stable isotope for contribution of nutritional sources to consumers. Overall results with the feeding types of investigated mangrove fauna indicate that investigated mangrove fauna obtained their nutrition from the various sources, i.e. the mangrove for Littorina cf. scabra, the microalgae for Strombus sp., and omnivorous Pagurus sp. and Terebralia cf. palustris. However, it is obvious that the nutrition of most species living in the mangrove ecosystem is highly dependent on the mangrove, either directly or indirectly. More detail food-web structure and function of the mangrove ecosystem would be established with the analysis of additional fauna and flora.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.859-867
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• 2014

This study was conducted to evaluate the optimum dietary lipid level in juvenile river puffer. Five semi-purified diets were formulated with corn oil to contain graded levels of lipid levels of 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18%. Fish averaging $8.32{\pm}0.02$ g randomly were fed the experimental diets in triplicate groups for 8 weeks. After the 8-weeks feeding trial, weight gain and specific growth rate of fish fed the 9% diet were significantly higher than those of fish fed the 15 and 18% diets (P<0.05) but there was not significantly different from that of fish fed the 6, 9 and 12% diets. Feed efficiency and protein efficiency ratio of fish fed the 6, 9 and 12% diets were significantly higher than those of fish fed the 18% diet (P<0.05). Visceralsomatic index of fish fed 18% diet was significantly higher than that of fish fed the 6% diet (P <0.05) but there was not significantly different from that of fish fed the 9, 12, 15 and 18% diets. No significant differences were observed in condition factor, hepatosomatic index and whole body composition among all the fish groups. Serum cholesterol and triglyceride fish fed of 18% diet were significantly higher than that of fish fed the other diets (P<0.05). Optimum dietary lipid levels by using broken-line model and by using second order polynomial were estimated at 7.01% and 8.98% for the maximum growth of fish respectively. Therefore, these results suggested that the optimum dietary lipid level could be greater than 7.01% but less than 8.98% for the maximum growth in juvenile river puffer.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.915-922
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• 2014

This study was conducted to evaluate the optimum dietary protein level in juvenile river puffer. Five semi-purified diets were formulated by using casein to contain graded levels of protein levels of 35, 45, 50, 55 and 65%. Fish averaging $8.56{\pm}0.04g$ were randomly assigned to one of five experimental diets in triplicate groups for 8 weeks. After the 8-weeks of feeding trial, weight gain and feed efficiency of fish fed 45, 50 and 55% diets were significantly higher than those of fish fed 35 and 65% diets (P<0.05). Protein efficiency ratio of fish fed the 35% diet was significantly higher than those of fish fed 65% diet (P<0.05), but there were no significant difference among those of fish fed 45, 50 and 55% diets. Specific growth rate of fish fed 50% diet was significantly higher than those of fish fed 35 and 65% diets (P<0.05), but there was no significant difference among those of fish fed 45, 50 and 55% diets. No significant differences were observed in condition factor, hepatosomatic index, visceralsomatic index and survival among those of fish fed all the diets. Optimum dietary protein levels by using broken-line model and by using second order polynomial were estimated at 45.9% and 51.6% for the maximum growth of fish respectively. Therefore, these results suggested that the optimum dietary protein level could be greater than 45.9% but less than 51.6% for the maximum growth in juvenile river puffer.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.151-156
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• 2017

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is widely used as sweetener, and its overconsumption is become a major health problem. In the present study, we used adult female rats and applied a 28 days HFCS feeding model to monitor the estrous cycle and changes in tissue weights and histology. Adult female rats were divided into three groups. Animals were fed with ad libitum normal chow and (1) 24 hours tap water (Control group), (2) 12 hours HFCS access during dark period and 12 hours tap water (12H group), and (3) 24 hours HFCS only access (24H group). Total exposure period was 28 days. There is no significant change in body weight between control and HFCS-fed animals. Both absolute and relative weights of ovary in 24H animals were significantly heavier than those in control or 12H animals. The absolute and relative weights of the kidney and liver in 24H groups were significantly heavier than those in control or 12H animals. The estrous cycles of the 24H animals were significantly longer. Histological analyses revealed that 24H ovaries were relatively bigger and possessed more corpus lutea than control ovaries. Uterine sections of 12H and 24H animals showed a well-developed stratum vasculare between inner and outer myometrial layers. The number of endometrial glands were decreased in 12H uteri, and recovered in 24H uteri compared to control. Numbers of convoluted tubule in distal region increased in 12H and 24H kidney samples. Liver specimens of 12H and 24H showed the increased number of fat containing vacuoles. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that HFCS treatment for 28 days could induce (1) changes in length of estrous cycle with extended estrous and diestrous stages, (2) altered ovarian and uterine histology, and (3) liver and renal lipid accumulation. These findings reveal the adverse effects of HFCS drinking on the reproductive function and lipid metabolism of female rats.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2014

BACKGROUND: The disease resistant (OsCK1) rice was generated by inserting choline kinase (CK1) and phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT) genes isolated from Oryza sativa and Streptomyces hygroscopicus into the genome of the rice, Nakdongbyeo. With the potential problems of safeties, the evaluations on non-target organisms are essentially required for the environmental risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) crops. In the present study, we conducted the evaluation of acute toxicity on Daphnia magna that commonly used as a model organism in ecotoxicological studies for non-target organism evaluation. METHODS AND RESULTS: Effect of acute toxicity to Daphnia magna by each concentration were investigated in the disease resistant (OsCK1) rice and non-genetically modified (non-GM) rice, Nakdongbyeo, as concentration (0, 1,000, 1,800, 3,240, 5,830, 10,500 and 20,000 mg/L). The OsCK1 rice used for the test was confirmed to express the OsCK1/PAT gene by the PCR(Polymerase chain reaction) and western blot analysis. Feeding test showed that no significant differences in cumulative immobility and abnormal response of Daphnia magna fed on OsCK1 rice or non-GM rice. The 48hr-$EC_{50}$ values showed no difference between OsCK1 rice (3,147.18 mg/L) and non-GM rice (3,596.27 mg/L). CONCLUSION: This result suggested that there was no significant difference in toxicity to Daphnia magna between OsCK1 rice and non-GM counterpart.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1190-1198
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• 2012

A hot forming of large thick Al plate using a grid-type hybrid die is a process to make a shell plate for the production of a spherical LNG tank. This process is characterized by using a grid-typed die with an additional air cooling system for reducing the cooling time of the heated plate after hot forming. The process consists of the plate's feeding, heating, forming and cooling in detail and each of them is continuously performed along the rail. This paper was designed to propose the analytical and experimental methods for determining the convection and interfacial heat transfer coefficients required in hot forming analysis of Al plate. These values in the analysis are to reproduce numerically the cooling performance of grid-typed die and cooling device. Interfacial heat transfer was obtained from the heat transfer experiments for different pressures and inverse analysis method. To verify the efficiency of the coefficient values obtained from above methods, FE analysis and experiment of the hot spherical-forming process were conducted for a small-scaled model. The convection coefficient was also calculated from flow analysis of air released by cooling device within grid-typed die using ANSYS-CFX.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.67-71
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• 2016

Two Korean Rhodeus bittering fishes are known as having a unique reproduction system that the female deposits its egg inside freshwater mussels. Among them, R. ocellatus and R. uyekii show an ecological difference in feeding items and micro-habitat. Through a light microscope, the visual cells of the retina in the two species were investigated to get information between vision and environment related with habitat. The two fishes' eyes are spherical and R. ocellatus has relatively larger eyes. For the two species, the visual cells of the retina consisted of long single cones, short single cones, unequal double cones and rods. In the cones, all show a row mosaic pattern. Although the two species have a different micro-habitat in the wild, the component of the visual cells was very similar to each other.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.14
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• pp.5587-5592
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• 2014

Aloe-emodin (AE), a natural anthraquinone compound, has been reported to exhibit anticancer activity in various cancer cell lines and anti-inflammatory effects in murine macrophages. In the present study, we investigated the cancer chemopreventive effects of AE in an Apc-deficient Min mouse model. In the first experiment, male Min mice were fed a basal diet or diets containing 5 ppm AE and 10 ppm AE for 12 weeks. The dietary administration of 5 ppm AE significantly reduced the number of colorectal tumors. In a second experiment, we investigated the effects of AE on colitis-related colon carcinogenesis in Min mouse treated with dextran sodium sulfate (DSS). Female Min mice were administered 1% DSS in their drinking water for 7 days. AE was given to mice in their diet at a dose of 5 or 50 ppm for 5 weeks. Feeding with AE significantly reduced the number of colorectal tumors. When proliferation of cells in normal-appearing colonic mucosa was assessed by monoclonal anti-rat Ki-67 antibody (MIB-5) immunohistochemistry in experiments 1 and 2, the AE treatment significantly decreased the mean MIB-5-labeling index. These results suggest that the dietary administration of low-dose AE may have chemopreventive effects against development of colorectal tumors in Min mice, possibly in part by reducing cell proliferation in colorectal mucosa.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.71-84
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• 2007

Masan Bay is a representative semi-closed bay acted as a sedimentation reservoir with a slow current velocity and a poor water circulation in Korea. The pollutants from terrestrial sources into the Masan Bay have apparently environmental pollution problems, such as eutrophication, red tied, and hypoxia. In this study, An ecological modeling work was performed to estimate the material circulation including the growth of bivalve in ecosystem. Furthermore, the effect of water purification was calculated by filter feeding bivalve to particulate organic matter just like COD and phytoplankton. And Water quality management strategy by bio-purification of bivalve is derived through selection of location, quantification of bivalve aquaculture farm. The results showed that the optimum location for bivalve farming is where phytoplankton accumulation by physical processes is maximized and the optimum density and area of bivalve are 35 individuals $m^{-3}$ and ca. 500 hectare, respectively. When assuming conditions for the optimum growth of bivalve, COD could decrease by up to 18% even without other reduction of pollution loads.