• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.1669-1676
• /
• 2013

Background: Variation in cancer incidence in geographical locations is due to different lifestyles and risk factors. Diet and socio-economic position (SEP) have been identified as important for the etiology of cancer but patterns are changing and inconsistent. The aim of this study was to investigate correlations of the incidence of common cancers with food groups, total energy, smoking, and SEP. Materials and Methods: In an ecological study, disaggregated cancer data through the National Cancer Registry in Iran (2008) and dietary intake, smoking habits and SEP obtained through a population based survey within the Urban Health Equity Assessment (Urban-HEART) project were correlated across 22 districts of Tehran. Results: Consumption of fruit, meat and dairy products adjusted for energy were positively correlated with bladder, colorectal, prostate and breast and total cancers in men and women, while these cancers were adversely correlated with bread and fat intake. Also prostate, breast, colorectal, bladder and ovarian cancers had a positive correlation with SEP; there was no correlation between SEP and skin cancer in both genders and stomach cancer in men. Conclusions: The incidence of cancer was higher in some regions of Tehran which appeared to be mainly determined by SEP rather than dietary intake. Further individual data are required to investigate reasons of cancer clustering.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.18 no.12
• /
• pp.1675-1683
• /
• 2005

In the process of crossbreeding, the linkage disequilibria between the quantitative trait loci (QTL) and their linked markers were reduced gradually with increasing generations. To study the potential of QTL mapping using the crossbred population, we presented a mixed effect model that treated the mean allelic value of the different founder populations as the fixed effect and the allelic deviation from the population mean as random effect. It was assumed that there were fifty QTLs having effect on the trait variation, the population mean and variance were divided to each QTL in founder generation in our model. Only the additive effect was considered in this model for simulation. Six schemes (S1-S6) of crossbreeding were studied. The selection index was used to evaluate the synthetic breeding value of two traits of the individual in the scheme of S2, S4 and S6, and the individuals with high selection index were chosen as the parents of the next generation. Random selection was used in the scheme of S1, S3 and S5. In this study, we premised a QTL explained 40% of the genetic variance was located in a region of 20 cM by the linkage analysis previously. The log likelihood ratio (log LR) was calculated to determine the presence of a QTL at the particular chromosomal position in each of the generations from the fourth to twentieth. The profiles of log LR and the number of the highest log LR located in the region of 5, 10 and 20 cM were compared between different generations and schemes. The profiles and the correct number reduced gradually with the generations increasing in the schemes of S2, S4 and S6, but both of them increased in the schemes of S1, S3 and S5. From the results, we concluded that the crossbreeding population undergoing random selection was suitable for improving the resolution of QTL mapping. Even experiencing index selection, there was still enough variation existing within the crossbred population before the fourteenth generation that could be used to refine the location of QTL in the chromosome region.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.32-42
• /
• 2019

Background: There have been much efforts to develop the proper and realistic machine Quality Assurance (QA) reflecting on real Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) plan. In this work we propose and test a special VMAT plan of plan-class specific (pcsr) QA, as a machine QA so that it might be a good solution to supplement weak point of present machine QA to make it more realistic for VMAT treatment. Materials and Methods: We divided human body into 5 treatment sites: brain, head and neck, chest, abdomen, and pelvis. One plan for each treatment site was selected from real VMAT cases and contours were mapped into the computational human phantom where the same plan as real VMAT plan was created and called plan-class specific reference (pcsr) QA plan. We delivered this pcsr QA plan on a daily basis over the full research period and tracked how much MLC movement and dosimetric error occurred in regular delivery. Several real patients under treatments were also tracked to test the usefulness of pcsr QA through comparisons between them. We used dynalog file viewer (DFV) and Dynalog file to analyze position and speed of individual MLC leaf. The gamma pass rate from portal dosimetry for different gamma criteria was analyzed to evaluate analyze dosimetric accuracy. Results and Discussion: The maxRMS of MLC position error for all plans were all within the tolerance limit of < 0.35 cm and the positional variation of maxPEs for both pcsr and real plans were observed very stable over the research session. Daily variations of maxRMS of MLC speed error and gamma pass rate for real VMAT plans were observed very comparable to those in their pcsr plans in good acceptable fluctuation. Conclusion: We believe that the newly proposed pcsr QA would be useful and helpful to predict the mid-term quality of real VMAT treatment delivery.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.54 no.10
• /
• pp.505-515
• /
• 2021

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) include human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) derived from blastocysts and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) generated from somatic cell reprogramming. Due to their self-renewal ability and pluripotent differentiation potential, hPSCs serve as an excellent experimental platform for human development, disease modeling, drug screening, and cell therapy. Traditionally, hPSCs were considered to form a homogenous population. However, recent advances in single cell technologies revealed a high degree of variability between individual cells within a hPSC population. Different types of heterogeneity can arise by genetic and epigenetic abnormalities associated with long-term in vitro culture and somatic cell reprogramming. These variations initially appear in a rare population of cells. However, some cancer-related variations can confer growth advantages to the affected cells and alter cellular phenotypes, which raises significant concerns in hPSC applications. In contrast, other types of heterogeneity are related to intrinsic features of hPSCs such as asynchronous cell cycle and spatial asymmetry in cell adhesion. A growing body of evidence suggests that hPSCs exploit the intrinsic heterogeneity to produce multiple lineages during differentiation. This idea offers a new concept of pluripotency with single cell heterogeneity as an integral element. Collectively, single cell heterogeneity is Janus-faced in hPSC function and application. Harmful heterogeneity has to be minimized by improving culture conditions and screening methods. However, other heterogeneity that is integral for pluripotency can be utilized to control hPSC proliferation and differentiation.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.157-166
• /
• 2019

Objective: This study examined the effects of stimulating fingertip temperature on the patterns of force sharing and stability properties during multi-finger force production tasks. Method: 9 adult subjects (male: 3, female: 6, age: $26.11{\pm}4.01yrs$, height: $169.22{\pm}5.97cm$, weight: $61.44{\pm}11.27kg$) participated in this study. The experiment consisted of three blocks: 1) maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) task, 2) single-finger ramp task to quantify enslaving (i.e., unintended force production by non-task fingers), and 3) 12 trials of multi-finger steady-state force production task at 20% MVC. There were three temperature conditions including body-temperature (i.e., control condition), $40^{\circ}C$, and $43^{\circ}C$, and the stimulation was given to the index finger only for all experimental conditions. Results: There were no significant differences in the MVC forces, enslaving, and the accuracy of performance during the steady-state task between the conditions. However, the share of stimulated index finger force increased with the index fingertip temperature, while the share of middle finger force decreased. Also, the coefficient of variation of both index and middle finger forces over repetitive trials increased with the index fingertip temperature. Under the framework of the uncontrolled manifold (UCM) hypothesis used to quantify indices of multi-finger synergies (i.e., stability property) stabilizing total force during the steady-state task, the two variance components within the UCM analysis increased together with the fingertip temperature, while no changes in the synergy indices between the conditions. Conclusion: The current results showed that fingertip temperature stimulation only to index finger does not affect to muscle force production capability of multi-finger, independence of individual fingers, and force production accuracy by the involvement of all four fingers. The effect of fingertip temperature on the sharing pattern and force variation may be due to diffuse reflex effects of the induced afferent activity on alpha-motoneuronal pools. However, the unchanged stability properties may be the reflection of the active error compensation strategies by non-stimulated finger actions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.9-25
• /
• 1977

As a successive work of the variation studies of natural Pinus densiflora stands, some characteristics of individual trees of the three natural populations selected from the Kwang-won Province, the middle-east part of Korean peninsula, as shown in the location map, were investigated. And the statiscal differences between individuals within population, and between populations were analysed. Twenty trees from each population were selected for this study purpose. Doing this, those trees lagged in growth, usually showing poorer form, were eliminated. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1. Though the average population ages had the ranage between 50 and 63, the growth of height or diameter was similar. Population No.9 is, however, considered to have better tree forms at glance. Population No.8 showed the heighest value not only in the clear-stem-length ratio. 0.53 but also in the crown-index 0.91. The higher value can be result from those trees having long lateral branches and relatively short crown height, meaning undesirable crown shape. In regard to the fine branchedness and the acuteness of branching angle, the population No.9. is considered to be a better one, whereas there was almost no difference in crown height among populations. 2. Checking the frequency distributions of the ratio of the clear-stem-height to the total height and the crown-indices, some difference between populations are considered. These might be attributed to the previous way of stand mangement which alters the density. 3. In the serration density, the average number of 54 per 1cm needle length, the significant differences exist between individual trees within population but not between populations. A few trees which extremly high serration density were observed. As in serration, so tendencies were in the number of stomata row and resin duct. 4. The population 8 had the resin duct index value of 0.074 as the highest which was twice or triple of the other ones. 5. The patterns of increasing process of the average 10-year-ring-segment were not similar till the 30 years of age, but beyond this, the tendency lines were aggregated. 6. Regading the average summer wood ratio, no diffrence between populations, but in the ranges, i.e. 23 to 30 in population No.8. and 16 to 36 in population No.9., with regad to the specific gravity of wood, there were hardly observed any difference between populations even in the ranges values. As the increase of tree ages, the increase of specific gravity was followed but the increasing patterns were not similar between populations. 7. No significant differences between populations in the average tracheid length and the range were detected. However, the length was increased according to the age increase. The increasing pattern was same between populations.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.194-205
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study is to develop a pedestrian multi-agent model and simulation system using multi-agent theory, which may be utilized as a planning support system for building a comfort and safe environment of pedestrian street. Differing from existing pedestrian models, however, every single pedestrian was regarded as an individual agent in the model. Multiple agents like multiple pedestrians in the street then maintain their own characteristics and respond to surrounding environment. In addition their moving behavior are made by their own decision rules that they have or had acquired through the interactive communications or learning between agents like real world. After verifying the model validation, as the $R^2$ between the predicted value and observed value was up to 0.781, the developed model was applied to Gazwa district within Gyeongsang university village. The simulation system was developed by Flash MX action scripts and the physical environment of the streets was configured with the digital map and ArcGis within computer virtual space. The attribute data of buildings such as type and size of commercial business were collected through the field survey and combined with physical features. Then the effect of the variation of building attractiveness and the occurrence of street events to pedestrian environment were simulated. Through the experiments this study could make suggestions to improve pedestrian environment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.1-38
• /
• 1979

The woody species of Genus Ilex which are endemic to Korea are distributed on limited area due to solely temperature factor. There is some differences according to species, however in general, the evergreen Ilex are found along southern coastal area of Korean Peninsula and near islands where the cold index does not exceed $-5^{\circ}C$. But Ilex macropoda and the variety, only deciduous ones, are grown in temperate zone of the peninsula and some islands. The list of Ilex species of Korea are as follows. Ilex cornuta Lindley et Pax., I. crenata Thunb. var. microphylla Max., I. crenata Thunb., I. rotunda Thunb., I. macropoda Miq., I. macropoda Miq. var. pseudo-macropoda Loensner, I. integra Thunb. The author surveyed the populations of Ilex species as many as possible and data of some characters such as leaf shape, spine, fruit shape, stomata density, sex ratio in natural communities, etc. are collected. Almost all the Ilex species in Korea show sporadic distribution. This means quite small sized populations isolate distantly each other eliminating the change of gene exchange in between. Particularly Ilex conuta and I. crenata show the morphological differentiation among populations as well as significant individual variation within a population. These were true with such characteristics, leaf shape, leaf dimension, leaf margin, fruit shape, spine, and stomata density. The founded are that the fruit length and the stomata density counted on the beneath surface of leaves of Ilex cornuta increased with the decrease of latitude. These are naturally closely related with the cold index values. The table shown below indicates the correlation between mean stomata density per $0.3642mm^2$ and cold index values. These relation however were not observed on Ilex crenata. The most dominated natured in relation to individual variation were outline of leaf, the number of marginal spine, the shape of leaf cross section and the degree of luster of the upper leaf surface. As shown in photos 5~7, these variations are agreed at a glance. There are reports that the development of marginal spines in some Ilex species is associated with the juvenility and topophysis. In present study, these two factors were neglected because of the intended sampling procedure. Of Ilex rotunda, population difference with the characteristics of leaf length is recognized but not for leaf width, petiole length, and fruit size. However, individual variations within a population were significantly large. In case of Ilex integra, only individual differences within population were calculated statistically for such characteristics as leaf length, leaf width, and petiole length. As to natural population, the sex ratio was 1:2 (female to male) for Ilex cornuta, and 1:1 for Ilex crenata. The tendency of more male than female in I. cornuta was agreed to other observations. Preparing the tip cutting of length 10cm, and treating with IBA, then attaching earth ball to the cut end, very successful rooting percentages were obtained. Asexual propagation has the advantages of maintaining the heterozygosity of existing varieties and overcoming the difficulties of delayed seed germination frequently encountered with Ilex species. Considering a great deal of variation in morphological traits, a good possibility of selection breeding for decorative and ornamental purposes exists. At present, these evergreen Ilex are ignored by local people as nuisance weedy shrubs. So the proper protection measures should promptly be taken.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.95 no.4
• /
• pp.483-494
• /
• 2006

We conducted QTL mapping for 6-year growths of open-pollinated half-sib progenies from a selected clone 7-1037 in Pinus taeda. With an AFLP marker analysis on haploid DNA samples from the megagametophytes of the open-pollinated seeds, we constructed 20 framework maps spanning a total of 1,869 cM in total length and 18.5 cM in an average interval length between markers. Composite interval mapping reveals that one QTL explains 5.9% of the total phenotypic variation of height, and three QTLs account for 3.9~5.6% of the variation of diameter at breast height (DBH). There are no correlations between the QTLs. The genetic effects of the QTLs are 39.6 cm in height and 7.20~9.41 mm in DBH, respectively, The average effects of gene substitution of the markers closely linked with the QTLs are 44.3 cm in height and 8.38~11.81 m in DBH. Under an assumption that the within-family heritability for the growth traits of loblolly pine is less than 0.2, the QTLs account for 26.8% of the additive genetic variance of the progenies. In terms of relative selection efficiency, the individual selection based on QTL markers could be 5 times as high as phenotypic selection. The results in this study indicate that the QTL mapping method with open-pollinated half-sib family could be more practical and applicable to the conventional seed orchard-based selection work than other mapping methods with a single full-sib family, in particular from the viewpoint that it can provide crucial information for within-family individual selection such as breeding value.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.8-20
• /
• 1976

For study on the variation of natural stand, three populations of Pinus densiflora S. et Z. were selected at samsanri Yongogmyun Myongjugun Kangwondo (4), Hawonri seomyun Uljingun Kyongbuk (5), and Emogdong Suweon Kyongkido (6) successibely after the selection of three population in 1974. Twenty individual trees were chosen from each population and the morphological characteristics of trees, needle and wood properties were investigated on the trees. The results are summerized as follows; 1. Serration density, resin canal number in needle did not show significant differences, however stomata row number in the both sides of needle showed highly significant differences among 3 populations. But significant differences were calculated among individual trees in a population regarding any character of needles. 2. Ail population had high correlation on the stomata row between abaxial and adaxial side of needle. 3. The Myongjungun population showed the highest value of resin duct index, which means the population had the highest degree of hybrid character. 4. The ring segment width and summerwood percentage in the wood properties had significant differences, and yet specific gravity and tracheid length had not significant differences statistically among 3 populations. But all the values were significant statistically among the ring segments within population. 5. The ring segment width decreased rapidly with increasing tree age but summerwood percentage, specific gravity, tracheid length increased slowly to the middle age of tree and then decreased slowly after the age. But the patterns of decrease or increase were some different by population. 6. The values of Uljingun population were generally high in the coefficient of variation on all the needle characters. And the values of Suweon population were always the highest and those of Myongjugun population the lowest in the coefficient of variation on all the wood properties.