Amplification of Porcine SRY Gene for Sex Determination

Choi, S.G.,Bae, M.S.,Lee, E.S.,Kim, S.O.,Kim, B.K.,Yang, J.H.,Jeon, C.E.,Kim, H.H.,Hwang, Y.J.,Lee, E.S.,Kim, D.Y. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2009 Animal Bioscience Vol.22 No.8

The separation of X and Y chromosome-bearing sperm is of use in many aspects of livestock maintenance. In this study, we sought to determine the difference in DNA content between X- and Y-bearing sperm, separate sperm into X- and Y-enriched pools, and assess the efficacy of sorting. Sperm collected from Duroc and miniature pigs were stained with 20.8 $\mu{M}$ Hoechst 33342 and analyzed using a high-speed cell sorter. Measurement of the fluorescence intensity of stained sperm nuclei revealed that the X-bearing sperm of Duroc and miniature pigs respectively contain 2.75% and 2.88% more DNA than Y-bearing sperm. In total, 50.18% of the sperm were assigned to the X-sorted sample and 49.82% was assigned to the Y-sorted sample for Duroc pigs. For miniature pigs, the Xsorted sample represented 50.19% of the population and the Y-sorted represented 49.81% of the population. Duplex PCR was used to evaluate accuracy of sorting. A fast and reliable method for porcine sexing was developed through amplification of the sex-determining region of the Y chromosome gene (SRY). Oligonucleotide primers were designed to amplify the conserved porcine SRY high motility group (HMG) box sequence motif. We found that the primer pair designed in this study was 1.46 times more specific than previously reported primers. Thus, this study shows that the present method can be applied in porcine breeding programs to facilitate manipulation of the sex ratio of offspring and to achieve precise sexing of porcine offspring by amplification of the HMG box of the SRY gene.

Geochemical modeling of CO₂-water-rock interactions for two different hydrochemical types of CO₂-rich springs in Kangwon District, Korea

Choi, B.Y.,Yun, S.T.,Kim, K.H.,Choi, H.S.,Chae, G.T.,Lee, P.K. Elsevier 2014 Journal of geochemical exploration Vol.144 No.1

Naturally outflowing CO<SUB>2</SUB>-rich springs are a natural analogue of the seepage of sequestered CO<SUB>2</SUB> in geological storage sites. In Kangwon district of South Korea, two hydrochemically different types of CO<SUB>2</SUB>-rich springs (i.e., Ca-HCO<SUB>3</SUB>-type and Na-HCO<SUB>3</SUB>-type) occur together in a granitic terrain. Hydrochemical and water-isotope data (i.e., δ<SUP>18</SUP>O-δD and tritium) show that Na-HCO<SUB>3</SUB>-type springs have experienced significant silicate weathering processes over a long residence time at depths, while Ca-HCO<SUB>3</SUB>-type springs were formed by the mixing of Na-HCO<SUB>3</SUB>-type springs with shallow groundwater during ascent. In this study, diverse geochemical models including mixing, ion exchange and reaction path were investigated to verify the geochemical processes accounting for the occurrence of two contrasting types of CO<SUB>2</SUB>-rich springs. The mixing and ion exchange models reveal that Ca-HCO<SUB>3</SUB>-type springs are well explained by reverse cation exchange occurring during the mixing of Na-HCO<SUB>3</SUB>-type springs with shallow groundwater. The Na-HCO<SUB>3</SUB>-type springs are well explained by the reaction path modeling including the dissolution of silicate minerals (plagioclase, K-feldspar and biotite) and the precipitation of secondary minerals (calcite, kaolinite, muscovite and Mg-beidellite), implying that dissolved carbon is sequestered by calcite precipitation (i.e., mineral trapping). However, the concentrations of K in our modeling results are far below those of K observed in Na-HCO<SUB>3</SUB>-type springs, because of the precipitation of muscovite considered in the model, suggesting the partial disequilibrium state of the aquifer during the hydrolysis of K-feldspar under high P<SUB>CO'2</SUB> conditions. This result implies that to better predict long-term CO<SUB>2</SUB>-water-rock interactions in a geological storage site with abundant K-feldspar, the secondary K-bearing minerals should be carefully predicted, because a target aquifer can be far from chemical equilibrium during the storage period. This study shows that geochemical modeling can be effectively used to predict the hydrochemical changes of groundwater during long-term CO<SUB>2</SUB>-water-rock interactions and subsequent leakage toward surface in K-feldspar rich aquifer, although it should be included in a fully coupled computational approach between fluid flow, heat transfer and reactive mass transport processes in the future research.

Effects of $BaCO_3$ purity on the superconducting properties of top seeded melt growth processed $Y_{1+x}Ba_2Cu_3O_y$ superconductors

Choi, J.S.,Park, S.D.,Jun, B.H.,Han, Y.H.,Sung, T.H.,Choo, K.N.,Kim, C.J. The Korean Society of Superconductivity and Cryoge 2009 한국초전도저온공학회논문지 Vol.11 No.2

Effects of $BaCO_3$ purity on the superconducting properties of top seeded melt growth (TSMG) processed $Y_{1+x}Ba_2Cu_3O_{7-y}$ (Y1+x, x=0.1 and 0.2) superconductors were investigated. $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-y}$ (Y123) powder prepared using $BaCO_3$ with 99.75% purity and commercially available Y123 powder of 99.9% were used for the fabrication of single Y123 grain superconductors. $T_c$ values of the Y1+x samples prepared using low purity Y123 powder were slightly lower than those of the samples prepared using a high purity powder. In addition to the lower $T_c$, an anomalous peak effect in the intermediate magnetic fields was observed in Y1+x samples prepared using the low purity $BaCO_3$ powder. The slight decrease in $T_c$ and the anomalous peak effect are ascribed to the possible incorporation of a Y123 phase with impurity elements such as strontium and calcium included in the $BaCO_3$powder of 99.7%. The result suggests that the low purity $BaCO_3$ powder of a low price can be used as a raw power for the fabrication of single grain YBCO bulk superconductors.

충청지역에서 발생한 쭈쭈가무시병의 임상상, 원인균의 혈청형 및 혈청역학적 연구

김선영,김윤성,박장규,윤태영,강재승,송인숙,최명식,최인학,차창룡,이우곤,박종우,이증훈,장우현,유영해,윤광혁,송계용 대한감염학회 1989 감염 Vol.21 No.2

From September to december 1987, eighty-six cases of tsutsugamushi disease were diagnosed by indirect immunofluorecent test or by isolating the causative agent in Chungcheung area. Their clinical features and patterns of antibody response to R. tsutsugamushi were analyzed. For the indenfication of prevalent antigenic types of R. tsutsugamushi in Chungcheung area, twenty-seven strains isolated were tested by indirect immunofluorescent test. To assess the extent of exposure to R.tsutsugamushi of a general population in Korea, the prevalence of antibody was investigated in 6,572 sera obtained from the residents of Chungcheung area by indirect immunofluorescent test. The female patients slightly outnumbered the male patients. More cases (68%) were older than 40 years of age. The epidemic peaked in October. The mean incubation period estimated was about 8 days. The major clinical features were fever and chill, headache, rash, eschar, and lymphadenopathy. Increased serm transaminase was the most singificant laboratory findings. Abnormalities in the chest roentgenography were often observed. The antibody titer rose rapidly 5 days after the onset, reached its peak at 20 days (1:640), and then declined agradually until 7 months(1:20). The seroype of 23 out of the 27 isolates wase found to be karp, one was Gilliam, and 3 isolates could not be classified by using polyclonal mouse hyperimmune sera. The prevalence of antibody to R.tsutsugamushi in the residents of Chungcheung area was 4.8%. The prevalence of antibody was higher in the female than in the male. The prevalence was higher in the residents of age above 40 years than below 40 years, and was the lowest in the children less than 10 years of age. Of the 318 positive sera from normal residents, only 2 sera showed the titers higher than 1:80.

Satisfaction with mammography in the National Cancer Screening Programme participants of age 40s in Korea

JEON, B.Y.,LEE, H‐,Y.,PARK, E‐,C.,CHOI, K.S.,JUN, J.K.,KIM, Y.,HAN, M.A.,YOON, N‐,H.,KIM, E.J.,JEON, S.M. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011 European journal of cancer care Vol.20 No.6

<P>JEON B.Y., LEE H‐Y., PARK E‐C., CHOI K.S., JUN J.K., KIM Y., HAN M.A., YOON N‐H., KIM E.J. & JEON S.M. (2011) <I>European Journal of Cancer Care</I><B>20</B>, 803–809</P><P><B>Satisfaction with mammography in the National Cancer Screening Programme participants of age 40s in Korea</B></P><P>The aim of this study was to evaluate satisfaction with the National Cancer Screening Programme of mammography in Korea and to examine the association between subscales of satisfaction and general satisfaction. We conducted a cross‐sectional telephone survey for women who had obtained a National Cancer Screening Programme mammographic screening at general hospitals between May and October 2008. The present study included 2005 women in their forties. We performed multivariate linear regression using dependent variable as general satisfaction and independent variables as subscales of satisfaction, such as pre‐screening information transfer, staff interpersonal skills, physical surroundings and results reporting. Participants were stratified according to the result of their mammogram as negative or positive. Mean score of satisfaction was above 2.5 of 4 for all subscales. Women who received positive results were less satisfied with all of subscale factors. Staff interpersonal skills were the most important factor that contributed to general satisfaction. Future efforts such as staff training programme of communication/attitude skills, ensuring privacy and explanation of possible discomfort of the screening would be needed.</P>

Novel K/Ka Bandpass Filters using LIGA Micromachined Process

Park, K. Y.,Park, J. Y.,Choi, H. K.,Lee, J.C.,Lee, B.,Kim, J. H.,Kim, N. Y.,Park, J. Y.,Kim, G. H.,Kim, D. W.,Bu, J. U.,Chung, K. W. The Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineerin 2000 한국전자파학회논문지 Vol.11 No.6

New class of three dimensional (3-D) micromachined microwave planar filters at K and Ka-band are presented using LIGA micro-machined process. The K-and Ka-band filters show wide bandpass characteristics of~36% and ~39% with the insertion loss 1.26dB at 19.11GHz and 1.7dB at GHz, respectively. These filters can be applicable in high power MMIC of MIMIC.

Aquaporin 2-labeled cells differentiate to intercalated cells in response to potassium depletion

Kim, W. Y.,Nam, S. A.,Choi, A.,Kim, Y. M.,Park, S. H.,Kim, Y. K.,Kim, J. Springer Science + Business Media 2016 Histochemistry and cell biology Vol.145 No.1

<P>The mammalian renal collecting duct consists of principal cells (PCs) and intercalated cells (ICs). Both PCs and ICs are involved in potassium (K+) homeostasis, PCs through their role in K+ secretion and ICs through their ability to facilitate K+ resorption. We previously hypothesized that PCs may differentiate into ICs upon K+ depletion. However, no direct evidence has yet been obtained to conclusively demonstrate that PCs differentiate into ICs in response to K+ depletion. Here, we present direct evidence for the differentiation of PCs into ICs by cell lineage tracing using aquaporin 2 (AQP2)-Cre mice and R26R-EYFP transgenic mice. In control mice, AQP2-EYFP+ cells exhibited mainly a PC phenotype (AQP2-positive/H+-ATPase-negative). Interestingly, some AQP2-EYFP+ cells exhibited an IC phenotype (H+-ATPase-positive/AQP2-negative); these cells accounted for 1.7 %. After K+ depletion, the proportion of AQP2-EYFP+ cells with an IC phenotype was increased to 4.1 %. Furthermore, some AQP2-EYFP+ cells exhibited a 'null cell' phenotype (AQP2-negative/H+-ATPase-negative) after K+ depletion. Collectively, our data demonstrate that AQP2-labeled cells can differentiate into ICs, as well as null cells, in response to K+ depletion. This finding indicates that some of AQP2-labeled cells possess properties of progenitor cells and that they can differentiate into ICs in the adult mouse kidney.</P>

Eugenol Inhibits K⁺ Currents in Trigeminal Ganglion Neurons

Li, H. Y.,Park, C.-K.,Jung, S. J.,Choi, S.-Y.,Lee, S. J.,Park, K.,Kim, J. S.,Oh, S. B. SAGE Publications 2007 Journal of dental research Vol.86 No.9

<P>Eugenol, a natural capsaicin congener, is widely used in dentistry. Eugenol inhibits voltage-activated Na<SUP>+</SUP> and Ca<SUP>2+</SUP> channels in a transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1)-independent manner. We hypothesized that eugenol also inhibits voltage-gated K<SUP>+</SUP> currents, and investigated this in rat trigeminal ganglion neurons and in a heterologous system using whole-cell patch clamping. Eugenol inhibited voltage-gated K<SUP>+</SUP> currents, and the inhibitory effects of eugenol were observed in both capsaicin-sensitive and capsaicin-insensitive neurons. Pre-treatment with capsazepine, a well-known antagonist of TRPV1, failed to block the inhibitory effects of eugenol on K<SUP>+</SUP> currents, suggesting no involvement of TRPV1. Eugenol inhibited human Kv1.5 currents stably expressed in <I>Ltk</I><SUP>−</SUP> cells, where TRPV1 is not endogenously expressed. We conclude that eugenol inhibits voltage-gated K<SUP>+</SUP> currents in a TRPV1-independent manner. The inhibition of voltage-gated K<SUP>+</SUP> currents is likely to contribute to the irritable action of eugenol. Abbreviations: human Kv1.5 channel, hKv1.5; transient receptor potential vanilloid 1, TRPV1.</P>

Overview of KSTAR research progress and future plans toward ITER and K-DEMO

Park, H.K.,Choi, M.J.,Hong, S.H.,In, Y.,Jeon, Y.M.,Ko, J.S.,Ko, W.H.,Kwak, J.G.,Kwon, J.M.,Lee, J.,Lee, J.H.,Lee, W.,Nam, Y.B.,Oh, Y.K.,Park, B.H.,Park, J.K.,Park, Y.S.,Wang, S.J.,Yoo, M.,Yoon, S.W.,B IOP 2019 Nuclear fusion Vol.59 No.11

<P>A decade-long operation of the Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) has contributed significantly to the operation of superconducting tokamak devices and the advancement of tokamak physics which will be beneficial for the ITER and K-DEMO programs. Even with limited heating capability, various conventional as well as new operating regimes have been explored and have achieved improved performance. As examples, a long pulse high-confinement mode operation with and without an edge-localized mode (ELM) crash was well over 70 and 30 s, respectively. The unique capabilities of KSTAR allowed it to improve the capability of controlling harmful instabilities, and they have been instrumental in uncovering much new physics. The highlights are that the L/H transition threshold power is sensitive to the resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) and insensitive to non-resonant magnetic perturbation. Co-<I>I</I> <SUB>p</SUB> offset rotation dominated by an electron channel predicted by general neoclassical toroidal viscosity theory was confirmed. Improved heat dispersal in a divertor system using three rows of rotating RMP was demonstrated and predictive control of the ELM-crash with <I>a priori</I> modeling was successfully tested. In magnetohydrodynamic physics, validation of the full reconnection model (i.e. <I>q</I> <SUB>0</SUB>  >  1 right after the sawtooth crash) and self-consistent validation of the anisotropic distribution of turbulence amplitude and flow in the presence of the 2/1 island with theoretical models were achieved. The turbulence amplitude induced by RMP was linearly increased with the slow RMP coil current ramp-up time (i.e. the magnetic diffusion time scale). The <I>D</I> <SUB> <I>α</I> </SUB> spikes (i.e. ELM-crash amplitude) was linearly decreased with the turbulence amplitude and not correlated with the perpendicular electron flow. In the turbulence area, a non-diffusive ‘avalanche’ transport event and the role of a quiescent coherent mode in confinement were studied. To accommodate the anticipation of a higher performance of the KSTAR plasmas with the increased heating powers, a new divertor/internal interface with a full active cooling system will be implemented after a full test of the new heating (neutral beam injection II and electron cyclotron heating) and current drive (CD) (Helicon and lower hybrid CD) systems. An upgrade plan for the internal hardware, heating systems and efficient CD system may allow for a long pulse operation of higher performance plasmas at <I>β</I> <SUB>N</SUB>  >  3.0 with <I>f</I> <SUB>bs</SUB> ~ 0.5 and <I>T</I> <SUB>i</SUB>  >  10 keV.</P>

국내 분리 일본뇌염 바이러스 유전자에 대한 항체생성 연구(Ⅰ) : cloning of JEV viral genes

박찬,최우영,이호동,채수림,신은진,김인범,표재환,박근용,조해월 국립보건연구원 1999 국립보건원보 Vol.36 No.-