• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2013

In order to develop new skin whitening agents, we prepared the EtOAc layer (AJE) after enzyme treatment of 75% EtOH extract of the Alnus Japonica Steud. We measured their tyrosinase inhibitory activity in vitro and melanin synthesis inhibitory activity in B16-F1 melanoma cells. They did not show inhibitory activity against mushroom tyrosinase but showed melanin synthesis inhibitory activity in a dose-dependent manner. In a melanin synthesis inhibition assay, AJE suppressed melanin production up to 52% at a concentration of $40{\mu}g/mL$. To elucidate the mechanism of the inhibitory effects of AJE on melanogenesis, we measured expression of melanogenesis-related proteins by the western blot assay. As a result, AJE suppressed the expression of tyrosinase related protein 1 (TRP-1) and microphthalmia associated transcription factor (MITF). Moreover, AJE increased the expression of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK). These results conclude that ERK activation by AJE reduces melanin synthesis via MITF downregulation and is subsequent to the inhibition of TRP-1 expression. Therefore, we suggest that AJE could be used as active ingredients for skin whitening.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.3_spc
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• pp.427-433
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• 2021

Objective: An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of Achyranthes japonica extracts (AJE) on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, fecal microbial shedding, and fecal gas emission of growing pigs. Methods: A total of 180 ([Landrace×Yorkshire]×Duroc) growing pigs with initial body weight (BW) of 23.94±1.54 kg were used in this study to investigate the effects of AJE as a feed additive. Dietary treatments included: i) CON (basal diet), ii) TRT1 (basal diet+0.05% AJE), and iii) TRT2 (basal diet+0.10% AJE). Results: As a result of the dietary supplementation of 0% to 0.10% AJE, a linear increase of BW (p<0.05) on d 21 and 42, a linear increase of average daily gain (ADG) (p<0.05) during d 21 to 42, a trend in linear increase of ADG (p<0.10) during d 0 to 21 and d 0 to 42, a linear increase of gain to feed ratio (G:F) (p<0.05) during d 0 to 42, and a tendency in the linear increase of G:F during d 21 to 42 were observed in this study. Additionally, dietary supplementation of 0% to 0.10% AJE had a linear increase (p<0.05) on the apparent total tract digestibility of dry matter (DM) and energy, a linear increase (p<0.05) on lactic acid bacteria counts, a tendency in reducing (linear effect, p<0.10) coliform bacteria counts, and a linear decrease (p<0.05) in excreta H2S emission content in growing pigs. Conclusion: In conclusion, the results suggested that AJE had the potential to enhance growth performance, DM and energy digestibility, and fecal lactic acid bacteria counts, and decrease the fecal coliform bacteria counts and excreta H2S emission in growing pigs.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.103-114
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• 2024

This study was done to investigate the effects of the incorporation of Achyranthes japonica extracts (AJE) in diet on the production parameters of growing pigs. Exp 1: Total, 105 crossbred pigs (average body weight: 24.47 ± 2.46 kg) were used in a 6-week feeding trial. Pigs (seven replicates, five pigs per pen) were allotted randomly to three treatments. Dietary treatments: CON (basal diet); basal diet with 0.025% AJE, and basal diet + 0.050% AJE). Growth performance, nutrient digestibility, fecal microbial count, and fecal noxious gas were assessed in this study. Average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and gain to feed ratio (G:F) were not affected by the addition of up to 0.05% AJE. In the case of apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD), dry matter (DM), nitrogen (N), and digestible energy (DE) were not changed in 3rd and 6th weeks of the feeding trial through the addition of AJE up to 0.05% in the growing pig diet. In microbial count, Lactobacillus and Escherichia coli count at 3rd and 6th week was similar in all the treatment diets. The inclusion of AJE at levels up to 0.05% in growing pig diet had no effect on the production of NH3, H2S, acetic acid, and CO₂ in the feces. After ending the Exp 1, a total of nine pigs were divided into three treatment groups. Treatment diets were included, TRT1, basal diet + powder quercetin 30 g; TRT2, basal diet + powder quercetin 150 g; TRT3, basal diet + powder quercetin 300g. Rate of absorption in blood was increased with the higher dose of quercetin. The results suggested incorporation of AJE up to 0.05% has no significant effect on ADG, ADFI, and G:F, as well as DM, N, and DE digestibility, fecal microbial count, and fecal noxious gas emission in growing pigs, even though no negative effect was found.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.90-100
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• 2022

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) have posed serious public health problems, accounting for nearly 30% of mortality worldwide and their incidence is still increasing. Therefore, new treatment resources are necessary to prevent or manage the ever-increasing population of patients with CVDs. Sea cucumber is well known for its medical and health benefit effects, but it is not well known what/how effect it has on vascular disease. In the present study, we examined the protect effect of sea cucumber, Apostichopus japonicus 80% ethanol extract (AJE) on zebrafish embryo with the stimulation of free fatty acid, palmitate (PA). In vivo study showed that AJE can attenuate PA-induced toxicity through relieving the rapid heartbeat, increasing the survival rate and reducing the malformation in both wild type and Tg (fli1a:eGFP) transgenic zebrafish lines. Additionally, compare with PA treated embryos, the yolk sac area, body length, axial vascular segment (AVS) and intersegmental vessel (ISV) of the co-treatment group of AJE and PA were comparable to the control group. Moreover, AJE lowered the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), nitric oxide (NO) and inflammation-related genes induced by PA, and inhibited PA-induced vascular development disorders. Our data preliminarily verify that AJE could be a candidate resource for the prevention or therapy of CVDs.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.655-668
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• 2021

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of the supplementation of Achyranthes japonica extract (AJE) on overall performance levels with different nutrition concentrations in the diets of finishing pigs. Here, 140 finishing pigs with initial body weights of 50.18 ± 2.37 kg were used in a ten-week trial involving a 2 × 2 factorial design in two phases with the following factors: diet types with different nutrition concentrations (Positive control [PC] vs. Negative control [NC]) and 0 or 0.05% AJE supplementation to NC and PC diets. The PC diet was a basal diet, whereas the NC diet consisted of a 5% and 7% crude protein (CP) reduced basal diet during phase 1 (1 - 35 days) and phase 2 (36 - 70 days), respectively. A significant effect (p < 0.05) on the gain-to-feed ratio (G : F) was observed with interaction effects between the diets and AJE supplementation. However, during phase 1 and in all periods, the pigs fed the PC and NC diets with average daily feed intake (ADFI) tended to decrease compared to those fed diets with AJE. A significant effect (p = 0.0380) of E. coli was observed in pigs fed the PC and NC diets compared to AJE supplementation in phase 2 of the experiment. The backfat thickness (BFT) tended to decrease and the lean meat percentage (LMP) was significantly improved in phase 2 for pigs fed the PC and NC diets. In summary, BFT and LMP showed beneficial effects and fecal microbiota of E. coli counts were positively affected when pigs were fed diets with different nutrient concentrations.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.153-159
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• 2011

A total of 286 individuals from 3 selected communities (Areedi-Aje, Ipakodo/Ojokodo, and Ijebu-Igbo) of Ijebu-North, southwestern Nigeria were examined for Loa loa microfilaremia using finger prick blood smear, between December 2008 and March 2009. Rapid assessment procedure for loiasis (RAPLOA) was used to obtain information, from 187 Ijebu-Igbo residents, on adverse reactions experienced from retrospective treatments with ivermectin and history of eye worm. Only 33.9% of the respondents reported having had a history of eye worm while 33.2% had microfilaremia. The demographic factor of gender was not significant determinants of the prevalence (p>0.05) while age was significant (P<0.05). The highest prevalence of eye worm history and microfilaremia were recorded in 61-70 and 15-20 years of age categories, respectively. Ijebu-Igbo had 27.3% eye worm history, 32.1% microfilaremia, and the highest intensity of 140 microfilariae (mf)/ml. Ipakodo area had the highest eye worm history of 54.4% and the highest intensity of 420 mf/ml. Areedi-Aje had the highest occurrence of 45.2% microfilaremia and the highest intensity of 460 mf/ml. Predictably, Areedi-Aje and Ipakodo areas were high risk communities. The low intensity of L. loa infection with an insignificant (2.1%; P>0.05) adverse reactions from 187 subjects involved in the retrospective ivermectin administration confirmed that ivermectin delivery may be considered safe. The community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI) programme was most probably responsible for the low prevalence and intensity.

• Journal of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.95-105
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• 2019

A method that applies space-time adaptive signal processing (STAP) algorithm based on an array antenna consisting of multiple antenna elements has been known to be effective to remove wide-band jamming signals in GPS receivers. However, the occurrence of phase distortion in navigation signals has been a problem when navigation signals, from which jamming signals are removed using STAP, are supplied to global positioning system (GPS) receivers. This paper verified the navigation performance degradation as a result of phase distortion. To mitigate this phenomenon, this paper proposes a mode switching scheme, in which a bypass mode is adopted to make the best use of the tracking performance of receivers without performing signal processing when jamming signals are not present or weak, and a STAP mode is employed when jamming signals exceed the threshold value. In this paper, the mode switching scheme is proposed for two environments: when receivers are stationary, and when receivers are moving. This paper confirmed that the performance of position error improved because phase distortion could be excluded due to STAP if the bypass mode was adopted under a condition where the jamming signal power level was below the threshold value in an environment where receivers were stationary. However, this paper also observed that the navigation failed due to the instability of tracking performance of receivers due to phase distortion that occurred at the switching time, although the number of switching could be reduced dramatically by proposing a dual threshold scheme of on- and off-thresholds that switched a mode due to the array antenna characteristics of varying gains according to the jamming signal incident direction in an environment where receivers were moving. The analysis results verified that running the STAP algorithm at all times is more efficient than the mode switching, in terms of maintaining stable navigation and ensuring position error performance, to remove jamming signals in an environment where receivers were moving.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.374-390
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• 1993

Regeneration of periodontal tissue after a loss of attachment due to disease or trauma repesents an important issue in dentistry, and various bone graft materials have been used to regenerated lost periodontal tissue and restore proper fuctions. Among those, allografts have been extensively researched and widely used clinically, since they are known to possess an excellent osteoinduction capability and result in proper topography of alveolar bone. Regeneration of periodontal tissue in supraalveolar defects may be technically difficult. However, a large amount of regeneration has been observed by complete tissue coverage of involved teeth. In this study, supraalveolar defects in adult dogs were treated with periodontal surgery, decalcified freez-dried bone allograft, complete tissue coverage was attained, and effects on repair and regeneration of alveolar bone, cementum and periodontal ligament were studied. Exposure of premolar furcation of adult dogs was attained by removing marginal alveolar bone down to 5mm from CEJ, and root surfaces were planed with curettes. On the left side, defects were treated without any allograft(Control Group). On the right side, a DFDB was used(Experimental Group). In all groups, flaps were coronally positioned and sutured, completely submerging the treated defects. At two weeks, the crown were exposed 2-3mm. Healing progresses were histologically observed after eight weeks and the results were as follows : 1. Distance from CEJ to AJE was : $2.82{\pm}0.66mm$ in the control group, $1.71{\pm}0.51mm$ in experimental group, with significant differences between groups.(P<0.01) 2. Periodontal repair was : $2.18{\pm}0.66mm$ in the control group, $3.29{\pm}0.51mm$ in experimental group, with significant differences between groups.(P<0.01) 3. Connective tissue repair was : $1.43{\pm}0.52mm$ in the control group, $0.76{\pm}0.47mm$ in experimental group, with significant differences between groups.(P<0.01) Orientation of connective tissue fibers in relation to root surfaces was : mostly parallel in the control group, vertical or parallel or irregular in experimental group. 4. The amount of cementum formation was : $1.66{\pm}0.58mm$ in the control group, $2.86{\pm}0.66mm$ in experimental group, with significant differences between groups. 5. The amount of alveolar bone formation was : $0.76{\pm}0.72mm$ in the control group, $2.53{\pm}0.56mm$ in experimental group, with significant differences between groups.(P<0.01)