• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.570-583
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• 2023

Objective: Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) play critical roles in embryo development, and immune responses to infectious diseases. In this study, to investigate the roles of FGFs, we performed genome-wide identification, expression, and functional analyses of FGF family members in chickens. Methods: Chicken FGFs genes were identified and analyzed by using bioinformatics approach. Expression profiles and Hierarchical cluster analysis of the FGFs genes in different chicken tissues were obtained from the genome-wide RNA-seq. Results: A total of 20 FGF genes were identified in the chicken genome, which were classified into seven distinct groups (A-F) in the phylogenetic tree. Gene structure analysis revealed that members of the same clade had the same or similar exon-intron structure. Chromosome mapping suggested that FGF genes were widely dispersed across the chicken genome and were located on chromosomes 1, 4-6, 9-10, 13, 15, 28, and Z. In addition, the interactions among FGF proteins and between FGFs and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) proteins are limited, indicating that the remaining functions of FGF proteins should be further investigated in chickens. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathway analysis showed that FGF gene interacts with MAPK genes and are involved in stimulating signaling pathway and regulating immune responses. Furthermore, this study identified 15 differentially expressed genes (DEG) in 21 different growth stages during early chicken embryo development. RNA-sequencing data identified the DEG of FGFs on 1- and 3-days post infection in two indigenous Ri chicken lines infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 (HPAIV). Finally, all the genes examined through quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and RNA-Seq analyses showed similar responses to HPAIV infection in indigenous Ri chicken lines (R² = 0.92-0.95, p<0.01). Conclusion: This study provides significant insights into the potential functions of FGFs in chickens, including the regulation of MAPK signaling pathways and the immune response of chickens to HPAIV infections.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2022

Previous studies have provided important findings on children's speech production development. They have revealed that essentially all aspects of children's speech shift toward adult-like characteristics over time. Nevertheless, few studies have examined the perceptual aspects of children's speech tokens, as perceived by naive adult listeners. To fill the gap between children's production and adults' perception, we conducted cross-sectional perceptual studies of monosyllabic words produced by children aged two to six years. Monosyllabic words in the consonant-vowel-consonant form were extracted from children's speech samples and presented aurally to five listener groups (20 listeners in total). Generally, the agreement rate between children's production of target words and adult listeners' responses increases with age. The perceptual responses to tokens produced by two-year old children induced the largest discrepancies and the responses to words produced by six years olds agreed the most. Further analyses were conducted to identify the sources of disagreement, including the types of segments and syllable structure. This study makes an important contribution to our understanding of the development and perception of children's speech across age groups.

• Journal of Practical Engineering Education
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.539-547
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• 2023

In recent years, university education has emphasized a learner-centered education model with a change in educational paradigm. This study aims to explore students' diverse opinions and improve the quality of education by analyzing the open-ended responses of university lecture evaluations using topic modeling. To this end, a total of 45,001 open-ended responses based on the results of lecture evaluations from 2017 to 2022 in non-metropolitan universities were divided into majors and liberal arts, and a short-form optimized Biterm Topic Modeling (BTM) analysis was conducted. As a result of the analysis, major lectures were divided into "attitude toward non-face-to-face classroom experience", "attitude toward questions and discussions", "attitude toward attendance and grading", "attitude toward practical activities and presentations", and "attitude toward communication and collaboration", while liberal arts lectures were divided into "attitude toward non-face-to-face classroom experience", "attitude toward grades and evaluations", "attitude toward attendance and syllabus", "attitude toward academic knowledge and interest", and "attitude toward communication and questions". The results of this study, which analyzed various feedback from students, provide insights that can be used to compare the characteristics of majors and liberal arts courses and improve teaching and learning experiences.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.19-32
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• 2024

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Atherosclerosis is associated with increased inflammation in the visceral adipose tissue (VAT). Vitamin D has been reported to modulate the inflammatory responses of stromal vascular cells (SVCs) and adipocytes in adipose tissue, but the role of vitamin D in atherosclerosis biology is unclear. This study examined the effects of in vitro 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ (1,25[OH]₂D₃) treatment on the inflammatory responses of SVCs and adipocytes from atherosclerotic mice. MATERIALS/METHODS: C57BL/6J (B6) mice were divided randomly into 2 groups and fed a 10% kcal fat control diet (control group, CON) or 41% kcal fat, 0.21% cholesterol (high fat + cholesterol, HFC) diet (obese group, OB), and B6.129S7-Ldlr^tm1Her/J (Ldlr^-/-) mice were fed a HFC diet (obese with atherosclerosis group, OBA) for 16 weeks. SVCs and adipocytes isolated from VAT were pre-incubated with 1,25(OH)₂D₃ for 24 h and stimulated with lipopolysaccarides for the next 24 h. Proinflammatory cytokine production by adipocytes and SVCs, the immune cell population in SVCs, and the expression of the genes involved in the inflammatory signaling pathway in SVCs were determined. RESULTS: The numbers of total macrophages and SVCs per mouse were higher in OB and OBA groups than the CON group. The in vitro 1,25(OH)₂D₃ treatment significantly reduced macrophages/SVCs (%) in the OBA group. Consistent with this change, the production of interleukin-6 and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) by SVCs from the OBA group was decreased by 1,25(OH)₂D₃ treatment. The 1,25(OH)₂D₃ treatment significantly reduced the toll-like receptor 4 and dual-specificity protein phosphatase 1 (also known as mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 1) mRNA levels in SVCs and MCP-1 production by adipocytes from all 3 groups. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that vitamin D can attribute to the inhibition of the inflammatory response in VAT from atherosclerotic mice by reducing proinflammatory cytokine production.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.659-666
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• 2009

Metabolizable protein (MP) supply and amino acid balance in the intestine were manipulated through selection of highly digestible rumen-undegradable protein (RUP) sources and protected methionine (Met) supplementation. Four ruminallycannulated, multiparous Holstein cows averaging 193${\pm}$13 days in milk were used in a 4${\times}$4 Latin square design to assess N utilization and milk production responses to changes in RUP level, post-ruminal RUP digestibility and protected Met supplementation. Treatments were A) 14.0% crude protein (CP), 8.0% rumen degradable protein (RDP) and 6.0% RUP of low intestinal digestibility (HiRUP-LoDRUP); B) 14.1% CP, 8.1% RDP and 6.0% RUP of high intestinal digestibility (HiRUP-HiDRUP); C) 13.1% CP, 7.9% RDP and 5.2% RUP of high intestinal digestibility (LoRUP-HiDRUP), and D) 13.1% CP, 7.9% RDP and 5.2% RUP of high intestinal digestibility plus rumen escape sources of Met (LoRUP-HiDRUP+Met). Experimental diets were formulated to have similar concentrations of RDP, net energy of lactation ($NE_L$), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), calcium, phosphorus and ether extract using the NRC model (2001). Results showed that dry matter intake (DMI), production of milk fat and protein were similar among treatments. Milk production was similar for diet HiRUP-LoDRUP, HiRUP-HiDRUP and LoRUP-HiDRUP+Met, and significantly higher than diet LoRUP-HiDRUP. Milk fat and protein percentage were higher for cows receiving HiDRUP treatments, with the greatest increases in the diet LoRUP-HiDRUP+Met. There was no significant change in ruminal pH, $NH_3g-N$ and volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration among all treatments. Apparent digestibility of dry matter (DM), CP, NDF and ADF and estimated bacterial CP synthesis were similar for all treatments. Nitrogen intakes, blood and milk urea-N concentrations were significantly higher for cows receiving HiRUP diets. Urine volume and total urinary N excretion were significantly lowered by LoRUP diets. Lowering dietary RUP level while supplementing the highly digestible RUP source with rumen escape sources of Met resulted in similar milk production, maximal milk fat and protein concentration and maximum N efficiency, indicating that post-ruminal digestibility of RUP and amino acid balance in the small intestine can be more important than total RUP supplementation.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-20
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• 2008

Based on the multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT), we present a survey method to measure consumer preferences. The multi-attribute utility theory has been used to make decisions in OR/MS field; however, we show that the method can be effectively used to estimate the demand for new services by measuring individual level utility function. Because conjoint method has been widely used to measure consumer preferences for new products and services, we compare the pros and cons of two consumer preference survey methods. Further, we illustrate how swing weighing method can be effectively used to elicit customer preferences especially for new telecommunications services, Multi-attribute utility theory is a compositional approach for modeling customer preference, in which researchers calculate overall service utility by summing up the evaluation results for each attribute. On the contrary, conjoint method is a decompositional approach, which requires holistic evaluations for profiles. Partworth for each attribute is derived or estimated based on the evaluation, and finally consumer preferences for each profile are calculated. However, if the profiles are quite new and unfamiliar to the survey respondents, they will find it very difficult to accurately evaluate the profiles. We believe that the multi-attribute utility theory-based survey method is more appropriate than the conjoint method, because respondents only need to assess attribute level preferences and not holistic assessment. We chose swing weighting method among many weight assessment methods in multi-attribute utility theory, because it is designed to perform in a simple and fast manner. As illustrated in Clemen and Reilly (2001), to assess swing weights, the first step is to create the worst possible outcome as a benchmark by setting the worst level on each of the attributes. Then, each of the succeeding rows "swings" one of the attributes from worst to best. Upon constructing the swing table, respondents rank order the outcomes (rows). The next step is to rate the outcomes in which the rating for the benchmark is set to be 0 and the rating for the best outcome to be 100, and the ratings for other outcomes are determined in the ranges between 0 and 100. In calculating weight for each attribute, ratings are normalized by the total sum of all ratings. To demonstrate the applicability of the approach, we elicited and analyzed individual-level customer preference for new telecommunication services-WiBro and HSDPA. We began with a randomly selected 800 interviewees, and reduced them to 432 because other remaining ones were related to the people who did not show strong intention for subscription to new telecommunications services. For each combination of content and handset, number of responses which favored WiBro and HSDPA were counted, respectively. It was assumed that interviewee favors a specific service when expected utility is greater than that of competing service(s). Then, the market share of each service was calculated by normalizing the total number of responses which preferred each service. Holistic evaluation of new and unfamiliar service is a tough challenge for survey respondents. We have developed a simple and easy method to assess individual level preference by estimating weight of each attribute. Swing method was applied for this purpose. We believe that estimating individual level preference will be quite flexibly used to predict market performance of new services in many different business environments.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1160-1171
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• 2013

A feeding trial was conducted in tilapia to determine the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, digestive enzymes, and postprandial blood metabolites in response to different dietary amylose-amylopectin ratios. Five isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets containing an equal starch level with different amylose-amylopectin ratios of 0.11 (diet 1), 0.24 (diet 2), 0.47 (diet 3), 0.76 (diet 4) and 0.98 (diet 5) were formulated using high-amylose corn starch (as the amylose source) and waxy rice (as the amylopectin source). Each diet was hand-fed to six tanks of 15 fish each, three times a day over a 6-wk period. After the growth trial, a postprandial blood metabolic test was carried out. Fish fed diet 2 exhibited the highest percent weight gain and feed efficiency and protein efficiency ratio, whereas fish fed with diet 5 showed the lowest growth and feed utilization among treatments. The digestibility for starch in fish fed diet 1 and 2 was higher than those in fish fed with other diets (p<0.05). The highest activities for protease, lipase and amylase were found in fish fed the diet 2, diet 1, and diet 1 respectively among dietary treatments, while the lowest values for these indexes were observed in fish fed the diet 3, diet 5 and diet 4, respectively. The liver glycogen concentrations in fish fed diets 4 and 5 were found higher than in fish fed other diets (p<0.05). The feeding rate, hepatosomatic index, condition factor, and plasma parmeters (glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) did not differ across treatments. In terms of postprandial blood responses, peak blood glucose and triglycerides were lower after 3 or 6 h in the fish fed with diets 3-5 than in the fish fed diet 1, but delayed peak blood total amino acid time was observed in fish fed with the diets 1 or 2. The lowest peak values for each of the three blood metabolites were observed in fish fed diet 5. The results indicate that high-dietary amylose-amylopectin ratio could compromise growth, but help in reducing the blood glucose stress on fish caused by postprandial starch load.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.77-90
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• 1995

The Purposes of this study were to examine plasma homovanillic acid(pHVA) levels and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid(pHIAA) levels in schizophrenics during haloperidol treatment, and to assess the association of pHVA and pHIM levels with their psychopathology and treatment responses. Fourteen patients entered the study and pHVA, pHIAA levels were measured at baseline, first week, second week and fourth week during treatment. Also, plasma haloperidol levels were measured at first week, second week and fourth week. Psychopathology was evaluated with Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale(BPRS) at baseline, 1st week, 2nd week and 4th week. 1) There were significant differences on the duration of illness and total BPRS scores at baseline between higher pHVA group(baseline pHVA level >7.72ng/mL) and lower pHVA group(baseline pHVA level <7.72ng/mL). 2) There was no significant difference on the duration of illness between higher pHIM group(baseline pHIAA level >3.18ng/mL). and lower pHIAA group(baseline pHIAA level <3.18ng/mL). 3) The Means of pHVA levels at 1 st week and 2nd week after treatment decreased significantly in the higher pHVA group and did not change in the lower pHVA group. 4) In the higher pHIAA group, the mean of pHIAA levels at 4th week after treatment decreased significantly, but did not change in the lower pHIAA group. 5) Between the higher pHIVA group and lower pHVA group, the response rates(percentile improvement) after treatment were not different from each other, but there was significant difference on the response rate between the lower pHIAA group and higher pHIM group at 2nd week. 6) There was significant correlation between total BPRS scores and pHVA levels in the higher pHVA group during treatment. The results suggest that repeated measurement of pHVA levels and pHIAA levels following antipsychotic treatment have prognostic significance for response. Also, shcizophrenics whose have relatively nigh levels of pHVA, or relatively low levels of pHIAA before treatment will show a favorable early responses to antipsychotics.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.317-322
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• 2011

This study was performed to obtain the basic data on physiological responses of low water temperature stress of the cultured Pacific abalone, Haliotis discus hannai. Abalones were exposed at low water temperatures of $7^{\circ}C$ and $4^{\circ}C$. We have investigated survival rate, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and total protein (TP) in the abalone by the exposure times (0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 72, 120, 168 and 216 hours). Survival rate of the abalone at $7^{\circ}C$ experiment was 90.8%, whereas at $4^{\circ}C$ experiment was 0% after exposure 10 days. SOD activity was significantly increased until 12 hours after exposure to $4^{\circ}C$, and then was recovered to starting level after 24 hours. However, there was no significant difference between control ($12^{\circ}C$) and $7^{\circ}C$ experiments. TP was significantly increased until 216 hours after 24 hours at $4^{\circ}C$ experiment, but $7^{\circ}C$ experiment showed no significant differences compared to control ($12^{\circ}C$) experiment. Therefore, H. discus hannai was acclimated in low water temperature stress at $7^{\circ}C$, but at $4^{\circ}C$, all abalone died possibly because they exceed the limits of defense ability to too low temperature.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

We tried to determine the optimum salinity for a cultured of olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) by investigating after exposing the fish at different salinity (10, 15, 20 and 25 psu) for 24 and 48 hours compared with control group (fish before transfer to experimental tank). As a control groups, we compared an analyzed with other experimental groups using olive flounder in natural sea water. Hematological parameters including hematocrit (Ht) and hemoglobin (Hb), cortisol and glucose, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), $NH_3$, osmolality, total protein (TP), $Na^+$, $K^+$ and $Cl^-$ mostly exhibited significant changes at 10 and 15 psu groups compared with control groups for 24 and 48 hours exposed. Plasma SOD (superoxide dismutase) and CAT (catalase) activity also increased with experimental groups (10 and 15 psu) compared to the control groups. The expression of HSP70 mRNA was also higher at low-salinity (10 and 15 psu) than at control group. In particular, after 24 hours exposed, it expression to 15 psu groups showed a significant difference compared to the control group. However, after 48 hours exposed, it expression was higher in the 10 psu groups than the control. It is assumed that the changes in the hematological responses and hormone, homeostasis and metabolism were resulted in to protect fish body from stress. Based on these results, we are expected that it will be used as basic data for the culture of olive flounder prepared for low salinity.