The GM-CSF had neuroprotective effects in in vitro and in vivo experiments and resulted in decreased infarction volume and improved locomotor behavior. Although the specific mechanism involved in stroke recovery was not fully elucidated as it was not the primary focus of this study, administration of GM-CSF appeared to decrease the extent of neuronal apoptosis by modulating the expression of several apoptosis-related genes such as Bcl-2, Bax, caspase 3, and p53. Further investigations are necessary to better understand the role of GM-CSF on neural regeneration during the recovery phase of a stroke, as well as the intracellular signal transduction pathways that mediate neuroprotection.

Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) has been a major viral pathogen causing significant losses of cereal crops including oats worldwide. It spreads naturally through aphids, and a rapid, specific, and reliable diagnostic method is imperative for disease monitoring and management. Here, we established a rapid and reliable method for isothermal reverse transcription recombinase polymerase amplification (RT-RPA) combined with a lateral flow strips (LFS) assay for the detection of BYDV-infected oat samples based on the conserved sequences of the BYDV coat protein gene. Specific primers and a probe for RT-RPA reacted and optimally incubated at 42 o C for 10 min, and the end-labeled amplification products were visualized on LFS within 10 min. The RT-RPA-LFS assay showed no cross-reactivity with other major cereal viruses, including barley mild mosaic virus, barley yellow mosaic virus, and rice black streaked dwarf virus, indicating high specificity of the assay. The sensitivity of the RT-RPA-LFS assay was similar to that of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and it was successfully validated to detect BYDV in oat samples from six different regions and in individual aphids. These results confirm the out-standing potential of the RT-RPA-LFS assay for rapid detection of BYDV.

We introduce an image upscaling method that reduces bit errors caused by Nyquist apertures. Nyquist apertures used for higher storage densities generate optical aberrations and degrade the quality of the image that is recorded on the medium. Here, to correct the bit errors caused by the Nyquist aperture, an image upscaling method is used to restore the degraded image in the enhanced spatial frequency domain using its point spread function (PSF) as a restoration filter. The proposed method reduces the bit error rate (BER) significantly and hence allows higher storage densities.

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The aim of this study was to estimate the shelf life of butter and cheese products, with shelf life being a guide used to determine the storage period of food before deterioration. Butter and cheese samples stored at 10℃ and 15℃ had a shelf life of 221 d, while those stored at 25℃ and 35℃ had a shelf life of 109 d. Quality changes, including total cell count, coliform counts, Listeria monocytogenes counts, acid value, moisture content, pH, acidity and overall sensory evaluation, were monitored. In order to pass the overall sensory evaluation, a quality score of 5 points on a 9-point scale was required. For other quality criteria, legal quality limits were established based on the “Process Criteria and Ingredient Standard of Livestock Products” by the Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency (Republic of Korea). The nonlegal quality limit was estimated by regression analysis between non-quality criteria (y) and overall sensory evaluation (x). The shelf life was estimated based on the number of days that the product passed the quality limit of the quality criteria. The shelf life of samples stored at 10℃, 15℃, 25℃ and 35℃ was 21.94, 17.18, 6.10 and 0.58 mon, respectively, for butter and 10.81, 9.47, 4.64 and 0.20 mon, respectively, for cheese.

Controlling infectious plant viruses presents a constant challenge in agriculture. As a source of valuable nutrients for human health, the cultivation of oats (Avena sativa L.) has recently been increased in Korea. To date, however, few studies have been undertaken to identify the viruses infecting oats in this country. In this study, we carried out RNA-sequencing followed by bioinformatics analyses to understand the virosphere in six different geographical locations in Korea where oats are cultivated. We identified three different virus species, namely, barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) (BYDV-PAV and BYDV-PAS), cereal yellow dwarf virus (CYDV) (CYDV-RPS and CYDV-RPV), and rice black-streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV). Based on the number of virus-associated reads and contigs, BYDV-PAV was a dominant virus infecting winter oats in Korea. Interestingly, RBSDV was identified in only a single region, and this is the first report of this virus infecting oats in Korea. Single nucleotide polymorphisms analyses indicated that most BYDV, CYDV, and RBSDV isolates show considerable genetic variations. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that BYDVs and CYDVs were largely grouped in isolates from Asia and USA, whereas RBSDV was genetically similar to isolates from China. Overall, the findings of this study provide a preliminary characterization of the types of plant viruses infecting oats in six geographical regions of Korea.

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Holographic data storage system is one of the next-generation data storage systems and is characterized by its high storage density and fast data transfer rate. However, holographic data storage systems are very sensitive to disturbances that affect the position of the media. Therefore, tracking servo control is needed to ensure a good performance of the system even if disturbances occur, such as eccentricity of the disk and external shock. In our previous researches on tracking servo methods, we used additional beams or recorded servo track images with data pages to record additional gratings with data pages. Therefore, the recording density may be reduced and the system may be complicated. In addition, the performance of the system may be compromised by cross-talk noise caused between the reference beams and additional beams. In this paper, we propose a tracking servo method using the residual beam, which is reflected by the reflective optical filter. This method does not require recording supplementary gratings or use additional beams, and only needs to record data pages. The residual beam is retrieved with desired retrieved beam by the reference beam and wasted during the retrieving process. We first constructed a holographic data storage system and designed a reflective optical filter to detect tracking error signals. After detecting the tracking error signals, a tracking servo controller using a lead-lag compensator was incorporated to reduce the tracking error signals. The performance of the designed controller was verified by simulated and experimental results. Finally, the performance of the tracking servo method was investigated by comparing the retrieved data images.