3D pattern development of tight-fitting dress for an asymmetrical female manikin

Tight-fitting clothing pattern reflecting the accurate information of the 3D body shape has been one of the challenges for garment industry especially for those who have an abnormal body shape. The objective of the paper is to develop the process of making a final 2D pattern from 3D scanned surface with minimum errors that fit tightly to an asymmetrical female manikin and secondly, to verify the proposed pattern development process from the free drawn design line on the specific 3D body. On the continuum of the previous methodology which provided the precise flattening algorithm on the local 3D surface, total pattern making process was investigated step by step. Final 2D pattern was constructed using non-extensible fabric and the accuracy of the pattern was investigated by shell-shell deviation of original 3D nude and clothed image. Area of each pattern block and corresponding 3D surface block was compared, and the detailed view of the triangle arrangements for the final pattern examined, confirming the topology of the concave and convex surface reflected correctly in the pattern. As results, the accuracy of the tight-fit dress pattern was satisfactory even for the asymmetrical female manikin with prominent curvature.     

Dispersion polymerization of acrylonitrile using a poly(ethylene glycol)-b-polyacrylonitrile macro-RAFT agent

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanoparticles were successfully prepared by dispersion polymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) in water using 10 and 20 wt% of the poly(ethylene oxide)-b-PAN macromolecular RAFT (PEO-b-PAN macro-RAFT) agent (M _n=5,600 g/mol, PDI=1.15). The degrees of polymerization of the PEO and PAN blocks were 113 and 16, respectively. The PAN nanoparticles had a crumpled spherical appearance and their sizes ranged from 50–80 nm. The degree of crystallinity of the PAN particles was 23 %. The M _n values of the PAN nanoparticles prepared with 10 and 20 wt% of the PEO-b-PAN macro-RAFT agent were 33,900 and 25,800 g/mol, respectively. The existence of the PEO block on the surface of the PAN nanoparticles was confirmed by ¹H NMR spectroscopy and XPS.     

Identification of a cluster of oligonucleotide repeat sequences and its practical implication in melon (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cucumis melo</Emphasis> L.) breeding

A cluster of oligonucleotide repeat sequences was identified that is linked to the melon (Cucumis melo L.) andromonoecious (a) locus, which controls andromonoecy. Six different repeat units, ranging from 11 to 49 base pairs, were clustered within a 0.6-kb intergenic region. The number of repeat units varied from two to six. After sequence analysis of diverse melon germplasms, four haplotypes of this cluster were identified. Length variations among the four haplotypes resulted from insertion or deletion of repeat sequences. Particularly, a tandem array of six repeats of 21 nucleotides was a hotspot for insertion/deletion mutations. A simple PCR-based marker was developed to identify haplotypes of this cluster based on the length polymorphism. In practice, this marker was successfully used in genetic purity tests of melon F₁ hybrid cultivars. Four self-pollinated contaminants, which were confirmed by phenotypic examination in grow-out tests, were easily discriminated from 99 F₁ hybrid individuals. In addition, the genetic distance between this marker and the andromonoecious (a) locus was calculated as 7.9 cM, after analyzing melon F₂ populations originating from a cross between monoecious and andromonoecious parental lines. Therefore, this marker will be useful as a recombinant selection marker in marker-assisted backcrossing of monoecy in melon breeding programs.     

Comparisons of bearing properties for various oriented glulam using digital image correlation

The goal of this study was to analyze the bearing properties of the differently oriented glulam using digital image correlation (DIC). Six differently oriented specimens associated with three anatomical directions including longitudinal (L), radial (R), and tangential (T), and 12-mm drift pins were used to analyze the bearing properties, including yield load and bearing strength. The highest bearing strength of 22.57 MPa from RL was found, whereas the lowest bearing strength of 6.47 MPa from LR was found. Different strain distributions were observed from the differently oriented bearing specimens using DIC. Different failure ratios of the differently oriented specimens were highly related to the strain distributions. Although the bearing properties were found to be different between the differently oriented specimens, for the connection design aspect, the bearing properties of glulam could be grouped as RL and TL specimens, RT and TR specimens, and LR and LT specimens.     

Marker-assisted identification of resistance genes to soybean mosaic virus in soybean lines

Soybean plants react differentially to soybean mosaic virus (SMV) strains because of interactions among different resistant genes in the soybean genome. Three independent genes resistant to SMV have been identified by inheritance studies and linkage analyses. To develop durable SMV-resistant soybean cultivars, it is necessary to determine which soybean SMV resistance genes can be readily transferred from resistant to susceptible cultivars in a breeding system. Here, we report the type and number of resistance gene(s) in four Korean elite soybean cultivars using a combination of disease reaction symptoms, inheritance studies, and molecular marker mappings. The disease reactions of Sowonkong and Keunolkong soybean varietals in response to infection with SMV strains suggested that both cultivars most likely harbor the Rsv1 gene similar to that in York. Subsequent inheritance studies confirmed that Sowonkong has the Rsv1 gene. The inheritance studies suggested that Sinpaldalkong harbored the Rsv1 gene, which was then confirmed by molecular marker mapping. The inheritance studies also suggested that Jinpumkong 2, which is the most resistant to SMV infection among the four cultivars, contained the Rsv1 and Rsv3 genes; this was confirmed by molecular marker mapping. Our approach, which combined inheritance studies and molecular linkage analyses, allowed the efficient identification of resistance gene(s) in four Korean soybean cultivars.     

Promising antidiabetic potential of fucoxanthin isolated from the edible brown algae Eisenia bicyclis and Undaria pinnatifida

In the present study, we investigated the antidiabetic potential of fucoxanthin via the inhibition of rat lens aldose reductase (RLAR), human recombinant aldose reductase (HRAR), advanced glycation end-product (AGE) formation, protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B), and α-glucosidase. Fucoxanthin displayed potent inhibitory activity against AGE formation and HRAR and RLAR activity. In addition, fucoxanthin showed potent inhibitory activity against PTP1B. However, it did not show α-glucosidase inhibitory activity below 200 μM. In addition, our kinetic study revealed that fucoxanthin competitively inhibited RLAR, while it showed mixed-type inhibition against PTP1B. In order to confirm enzyme inhibition, we predicted the 3D structure of PTP1B using Autodock 4.0 to simulate the binding of fucoxanthin. Docking simulation results demonstrated that three residues of PTP1B (Phe30, Phe52, and Gly183) interact with the two hydroxyl groups of fucoxanthin. In addition, the binding energy was negative (?7.66 kcal/mol), indicating that the three hydrogen bonds may stabilize the open form of the enzyme and potentiate tighter binding to the active site of PTP1B, resulting in more effective PTP1B inhibition. The results of the present study therefore clearly demonstrate the promising potential of fucoxanthin as a therapeutic intervention for the management of diabetes as well as diabetes-associated complications, which could be explored further.     

Suppression of cytokine-inducible nitric oxide synthesis during intraperitoneal Meth A tumor growth

Nitric oxide (NO*) synthesis is induced within many tumors. The time course of NO* synthesis was evaluated during intra-peritoneal Meth A fibrosarcoma progression. While increasing macrophage recruitment into ascites was noted, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) antigen and function peaked between days 3-6 after tumor implantation. The capacity of cells to respond to LPS and IFNgamma stimulation was markedly depressed on day 9 and 11. Cellular proliferation correlated in an inverse fashion with levels of NO* synthesis. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and nitrotyrosine immunostaining failed to show accumulation of characteristic target cell lesions induced by NO*. These findings lead us to conclude that NO* production was increasingly suppressed during Meth A tumor progression. Depression of NO* production did not correlate with levels of the inhibitory cytokines TGFbeta and IL-10, but could be partially overcome by addition of sepiapterin (a tetrahydrobiopterin prodrug). Thus, depletion of essential co-factors necessary for iNOS function may contribute to depressed NO* responses during cancer progression.