• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.49-52
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• 2013

A wild black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) with dehydration and a non-weight bearing lameness of the left leg was rescued. On physical examination, the left knee was displaced laterally at almost a $90^{\circ}$ angle with firm swelling and crepitus in the area of the coxofemoral joint. Radiographs confirmed cranio-dorsal coxofemoral luxation. A closed reduction attempt failed. The coxofemoral joint luxation was reduced surgically by placement of the femoral neck next to the pelvis with a suture. Ten days after surgery, radiographs and computed tomography showed the femoral neck and head were positioned well within the acetabulum. At 20 days, the bird was using the affected limb normally, and could hunt and forage for food in a rehabilitation housing unit with a small pond. The bird was successfully released into the wild. The placement of the femoral neck adjacent to the pelvis with a suture can be successfully performed for cases of avian coxofemoral joint luxation. Furthermore, this procedure can provide sufficient stabilization of the coxofemoral joint and acceptable limb function.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.207-212
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• 2017

Infections of Toxoplasma gondii and Babesia microti are reported in many wild animals worldwide, but information on their incidence and molecular detection in Korean wild fields is limited. In this study, the prevalence of T. gondii and B. microti infection in blood samples of 5 animal species (37 Chinese water deer, 23 raccoon dogs, 6 roe deer, 1 wild boar, and 3 Eurasian badgers) was examined during 2008-2009 in Gangwon-do (Province), the Republic of Korea (=Korea) by using serological and molecular tests. The overall seropositivity of T. gondii was 8.6% (6/70); 10.8% in Chinese water deer, 4.3% in raccoon dogs, and 16.7% in roe deer. PCR revealed only 1 case of T. gondii infection in Chinese water deer, and phylogenic analysis showed that the positive isolate was practically identical to the highly pathogenetic strain type I. In B. microti PCR, the positive rate was 5.7% (4/70), including 2 Chinese water deer and 2 Eurasian badgers. Phylogenetic analysis results of 18S rRNA and the ${\beta}$-tubulin gene showed that all positive isolates were US-type B. microti. To our knowledge, this is the first report of B. microti detected in Chinese water deer and Eurasian badger from Korea. These results indicate a potentially high prevalence of T. gondii and B. microti in wild animals of Gangwon-do, Korea. Furthermore, Chinese water deer might act as a reservoir for parasite infections of domestic animals.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2012

Recently, vessel hijacking by pirates has been a big issue around the world. For example, the hostages of VLCC "SAMHO Dream" were released for a large sum of ransom. On January 20, 2011 "SAMHO Jewelry" succeeded releasing all of the 21 crews on the vessel by attacking the pirates in international waters for the first time since the founding of the Naval Force. Furthermore, the "HANJIN Tianjin" crews evacuated to the Citadel promptly and were rescued by the navy. As hijacking of Korean vessels by pirates is increasing, various safety measures must be implemented. As a matter of fact, the standard for ship's facilities has been partially revised and setting up an evacuation shelter on all vessels sailing dangerous zone has been reinforced. This research aims to discuss crew Citadel installation on vessels intended for long haul. In addition, it will look at measures against potential gas flow in the event of pirate armed attacks and fire outbreak onboard a vessel. It will also assess the optimal number of crew Citadels theoretically. Lastly, the optimal number of shelters in the event of fire outbreak will be discussed based on an FDS simulation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2017.11a
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• pp.79-85
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• 2017

It is critical that passengers should be given timely and correct escape or evacuation guidance from captain and crews when there are hazardous situations in a ship. Otherwise the consequences could be disastrous as "SEWOL Ferry" the South Korean passenger ship which sank in southern coastal area on 16th April 2014. Due to the captain's delayed evacuation decision and lack of sufficient number of crews to guide passengers' evacuation, the accident recorded many casualties, most of whom were high school students (302 passengers sank down with the ship while 172 rescued). Building a passenger ship with well-designed physical escape routes is one thing and guiding passengers to those escape routes in real disaster situation is another. Passengers get panic and move to a wrong direction, bottleneck makes situation worse, and even crews get panic also - passive static escape route signage and small number of trained crews might not be enough to take care of them. SESS (Smart Escape Support System) is being developed sponsored by South Korea Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries starting from 2016 with 4 years of roadmap. SESS comprises multiple active dynamic signage devices which communicate with real-time escape routing server software via LoRa (Long Range) proprietary wireless network.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.253-259
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• 2017

Fumigation using chlorine dioxide ($ClO_2$) has been regarded as a potential control technique against stored grain insect pests. The control efficacy can be enhanced with increase of opening rates of spiracles by facilitating the toxic gas delivery to internal body. To test this hypothesis, this study used the Indianmeal moth, Plodia interpunctella, which was known to be susceptible to $ClO_2$, and analyzed the opening rate of spiracles. A total of 9 pairs of spiracles were observed in P. interpunctella larvae, in which one pair was located on the prothorax and eight pairs were on the abdomen. Within the body, the spiracles were connected to longitudinal and transverse tracheal trunks. The open spiracles were determined by the dye-infiltration method. Based on this method, the opening rate of spiracles increased up to about 60% with increase of ambient temperatures. Furthermore, exposure to carbon dioxide stimulated the opening rate of spiracles up to about 95%. In contrast, exposure to $ClO_2$ prevented the spiracle opening and resulted in only 25% of spiracles in an opening state. The addition of carbon dioxide to $ClO_2$ treatment rescued the opening rate of spiracles as much as the carbon dioxide single treatment. Based on this modulatory activity of carbon dioxide against spiracles, the combined treatment of $ClO_2$ with carbon dioxide resulted in significant increase of its toxicity against P. interpunctella compared to a single $ClO_2$ treatment.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.43 no.3 s.136
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• pp.217-223
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• 2004

Polydnavirus is a symbiotic virus of some endoparasitic wasps and plays crucial roles in inhibiting immune responses and retarding development of the parasitized hosts. Cotesia plutellae bracovirus (CpBV) is a polydnavirus suggesting a major causative to change developmental physiology of the parasitized host. Here, we investigated whether CpBV can interrupt development of non-natural host. Beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, is used as a non-permissible host for parasitization of C. plutellae. Extract from the calyx region of C. plutellae contained CpBV, which was confirmed by immunoblotting with a polyclonal antibody raised against CpBV. One female equivalent of CpBV extract was injected into hemocoel of late 4th instar larvae of S. exigua. The injected larvae showed delayed larval period, decrease of body weight gain, and inability of pupal metamorphosis. These inhibitory effect of the CpBV extract was rescued by injection along with CpBV antibody, though the antibody itself did not give any effect on development of the larvae. This result clearly shows that CpBV can interrupt developmental physiology of a non-natural host for its symbiotic wasp.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.161-168
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• 2017

In this study, we examined the effect of Perilla frutescens extract (PFE) on oxidative stress-induced cell death in RGC-5 cell lines. Staurosporine-differentiated RGC-5 (ssdRGC-5) cells obtained by treating RGC-5 cells with $1{\mu}M$ staurosporine were incubated with PFE for 30 min and then exposed to buthionine sulfoximine plus glutamate (B/G) for 20 h. Cell death was detected using lactate dehydrogenase release assay and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide reduction assay. To investigate the mechanism underlying cell death, we determined caspase-3 activity, level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, and expression levels of cytoplasmic cytochrome c and mitochondrial Bax. Treatment of ssdRGC-5 cells with B/G increased intracellular ROS and induced apoptosis with increasing caspase-3 activity. PFE rescued ssdRGC-5 cells from oxidative stress-induced cell death by inhibiting intracellular ROS production and caspase-3 activation and regulating apoptosis-related proteins such as cytochrome c and Bax. These findings suggest that PFE may have a beneficial neuroprotective effect against oxidative stress-induced apoptotic death in ssdRGC-5 cells.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.40 no.12
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• pp.966-975
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• 2017

Excessive salt disrupts intracellular ion homeostasis and inhibits plant growth, which poses a serious threat to global food security. Plants have adapted various strategies to survive in unfavorable saline soil conditions. Here, we show that humic acid (HA) is a good soil amendment that can be used to help overcome salinity stress because it markedly reduces the adverse effects of salinity on Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. To identify the molecular mechanisms of HA-induced salt stress tolerance in Arabidopsis, we examined possible roles of a sodium influx transporter HIGH-AFFINITY $K^+$ TRANSPORTER 1 (HKT1). Salt-induced root growth inhibition in HKT1 overexpressor transgenic plants (HKT1-OX) was rescued by application of HA, but not in wild-type and other plants. Moreover, salt-induced degradation of HKT1 protein was blocked by HA treatment. In addition, the application of HA to HKT1-OX seedlings led to increased distribution of $Na^+$ in roots up to the elongation zone and caused the reabsorption of $Na^+$ by xylem and parenchyma cells. Both the influx of the secondary messenger calcium and its cytosolic release appear to function in the destabilization of HKT1 protein under salt stress. Taken together, these results suggest that HA could be applied to the field to enhance plant growth and salt stress tolerance via post-transcriptional control of the HKT1 transporter gene under saline conditions.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1443-1450
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• 2010

Honokiol is a small molecular weight ligand originally isolated from the Chinese medicinal herb Magnolia officinalis, a plant used in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine [9]. In a previous study, the effects of honokiol were shown to have anti-angiogenic, anti-invasive and anti-proliferative activities in a variety of cancers [1,3,4,11,13,17,24,29,30]. We showed previously that direct production of nitric oxide (NO) by treatment of NO donor, sodium nitroprusside (SNP), led to apoptosis in rabbit articular chondrocytes [15,16]. This study confirmed that NO-induced apoptosis was suppressed by honokiol treatment in a dose-dependent manner as determined by cell phenotype, MTT assay, Western blot analysis and FACS analysis in articular chondrocytes. Treatment of honokiol inhibited SNP-induced expression of p53 as well as DNA fragmentation in articular chondrocytes, but increased expressionof pro-caspase-3. Inhibition of SNP-induced apoptosis by honokiol treatment was rescued by LY294002, the specific inhibitors of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI-3K) in articular chondrocytes. Our results indicate that honokiol inhibits NO-induced apoptosis via PI-3K/AKT pathway in rabbit articular chondrocytes.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.873-880
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• 2014

In our previous study, miRNA-183, a miRNA in the miR-96-182-183 cluster, was significantly over-expressed in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). In the present study, we explored the oncogenic roles of miR-183 in ESCC by gain and loss of function analysis in an esophageal cancer cell line (EC9706). Genome-wide mRNA micro-array was applied to determine the genes that were regulated directly or indirectly by miR-183. 3'UTR luciferase reporter assay, RT-PCR, and Western blot were conducted to verify the target gene of miR-183. Cell culture results showed that miR-183 inhibited apoptosis (p < 0.05), enhanced cell proliferation (p < 0.05), and accelerated G1/S transition (p < 0.05). Moreover, the inhibitory effect of miR-183 on apoptosis was rescued when miR-183 was suppressed via miR-183 inhibitor (p < 0.05). Western blot analysis showed that the expression of programmed cell death 4 (PDCD4), which was predicted as the target gene of miR-183 by microarray profiling and bioinformatics predictions, decreased when miR-183 was over-expressed. The 3'UTR luciferase reporter assay confirmed that miR-183 directly regulated PDCD4 by binding to sequences in the 3'UTR of PDCD4. Pearson correlation analysis further confirmed the significant negative correlation between miR-183 and PDCD4 in both cell lines and in ESCC patients. Our data suggest that miR-183 might play an oncogenic role in ESCC by regulating PDCD4 expression.