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The purpose of this study is to present a review of instruments developed to measure perceptions of special educators regarding their competencies and to provide a synthesis of research studies using these measurement instruments. A total of 29 studies were included in this review, and 20 instruments were used across the studies. The results were as follows. First, the majority of the instruments in this review were designed for assessing in‐service special educators. Second, there was a shortage of instruments designed for measuring necessary competencies in family supports and collaboration with families. Third, reliability and validity were reported for only 11 of the instruments. Finally, most studies utilised the tools in surveys; only two studies used the tools to investigate the effectiveness of the teacher support programmes implemented in their experiments. These results are discussed, and implications for future studies are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seed sprouts are susceptible to microbial contaminations, which might cause foodborne illnesses. In this study, gamma- and electron beam (e-beam)-irradiated (0–3 kGy) Chinese cabbage seeds (Brassica rapa ssp. Pekinensis) and their sprouts were investigated for the physicochemical, functional and microbiological qualities during storage. The irradiated seeds and their sprouts showed better overall microbial quality compared with nonirradiated samples; however, their hygienic quality profiles were same during storage of sprouts. The contents of ascorbic acid, carotenoid, chlorophyll and total phenolics of the seeds increased during germination but negligible changes were found during postharvest storage. Gamma irradiation and e-beam had similar effects on the physicochemical quality of Chinese cabbage seed sprouts with few exceptions (low germination rate of e-beam-treated seeds). These effects should be considered to obtain acceptable hygienic, nutritional and sensory attributes of irradiated Chinese cabbage seeds. Practical Applications The sprouted seeds widely used for human consumption are the suspect carriers of bacterial pathogens, which can outbreak sprout-related foodborne illnesses. Irradiation treatment is a promising technology to increase shelf life of sprouts and reduce bacterial pathogen contamination with minimum concession of nutritional and sensory aspects. However, it is significant to establish the effect of applied irradiation dose on the seed germination, sprout length, quality parameters and overall acceptability.

This study focuses on the relationships of watershed runoff with historical land use/land cover (LULC) and climate trends. Over the 20th Century, LULC in the Southeast United States, particularly the North Carolina Piedmont, has evolved from an agriculture dominated to an extensively forested landscape with more recent localized urbanization. The regrowth of forest has an important influence on the hydrology of the region as it enhances ecosystem interaction with recent climate change. During 1920-2009, the amount of precipitation in some parts of the North Carolina Piedmont forest regrowth area showed increasing trends without corresponding increments in runoff. We employed the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to backcast long-term hydrologic behavior of watersheds in North Carolina with different LULC conditions: (1) LULC conversion from agricultural to forested area and (2) long-term stable forested area. Comparing U.S. Geological Survey-measured stream discharge with SWAT-simulated stream discharge under the assumption of constant 2006 LULC, we found significant stream discharge underprediction by SWAT in two LULC conversion watersheds during the early simulation period (1920s) with differences gradually decreasing by the mid-1970s. This model bias suggests that forest regrowth on abandoned agricultural land was a key factor contributing to mitigate the impact of increased precipitation on runoff due to increasing water consumption driven by changes in vegetation.

Dissolving microneedles (DMNs) have been widely studied in medical applications due to their pain-free administration, superior efficiency, and safe drug delivery. In skin vaccination, preserving the activity of the encapsulated antigen is an important consideration, as antigen activity is lost during DMN fabrication because of various stress factors. These stress factors vary between fabrication methods and each method affects the antigen's activity to different degrees. In this study, the activity of encapsulated antigens delivered by DMNs is compared between two recently developed DMN fabrication methods; droplet-born air blowing (DAB) and centrifugal lithography (CL) for a model scrub typhus vaccine antigen, ScaA. Although the in vitro analysis of ScaA-loaded DMNs (ScaA-DMNs) does not show any differences in physical properties depending on the fabrication methods, the immunogenicity of the CL-produced ScaA-DMN is significantly higher based on cytokine measurement and humoral immunity. DAB and CL differ in their solidification conditions, suggesting that solidification factors critically affect the encapsulated antigen's activity. ScaA-DMNs may also be stably stored for 4 weeks at room temperature. In conclusion, CL is a superior DMN fabrication method compared with DAB, and this study proves that DMN is feasible and practical for skin vaccination.

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and its major binding protein, IGF binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) are implicated in lung cancer and other malignancies. We have previously shown that the combination of three major antioxidants [β-carotene (BC), α-tocopherol (AT) and ascorbic acid (AA)] can prevent lung carcinogenesis in a 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK)-treated and smoke-exposed (SM) ferret model, which is highly analogous to humans. The present study is aimed at determining the effect of the combination of BC, AT and AA on antioxidant capacity, lymphocyte DNA damage, plasma IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 concentrations, as well as on IGF-1/IGFBP-3 mRNA expression in the tissues (lung and liver) of the ferrets. Ferrets were treated with or without combined antioxidant (BC, AT and AA) supplementation (AOX) for 6 months in the following 4 groups: (i) control; (ii) SM+NNK; (iii) AOX; and (iv) SM+NNK+AOX. Combined AOX supplementation significantly attenuated SM+NNK induced lymphocyte DNA damage in the ferret, while increasing resistance to oxidative damage when challenged with H2O2in vitro. Ferrets treated with SM+NNK had significantly lower IGFBP-3 mRNA expression in lungs, whereas there was significantly higher IGFBP-3 mRNA expression in the liver, as well as higher circulating IGFBP-3 concentrations. Combined AOX supplementation did not affect the plasma or tissue (lung and liver) ratio of IGF-1/IGFBP-3. Combined antioxidant supplementation provides protection against smoke-induced oxidative DNA damage, but does not affect the IGF-1/IGFBP-3 system. Differential expression of IGFBP-3 in different tissues indicates that caution should be taken when using plasma IGFBP-3 as a biomarker of tissue status. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Colon cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in worldwide. Most colon cancer patients develop recurrence suggesting that colon cancer is driven by a subpopulation of self-renewing cancer cells, termed cancer stem cell (CSCs), which may be responsible for tumor relapse and resistance against chemotherapy. Targeting CSCs to treat colon cancer may be an important therapeutic strategy. Sasa quelpaertensis Nakai is a bamboo grass that only grows in Jeju Island in South Korea. Although the anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory effects of Sasa leaves have been reported, the anti-cancer stem cell effects of Sasa leaves remain unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Sasa quelpaertensis leaves extracts (SQE) on suppressing cancer stemness of colon cancer cell. To obtain CSCs, we isolated CD133+/CD44+ population of HT29 colon cancer cells using Flow Cytometry Cell Sorting (FACS). We found that SQE significantly suppressed CD133+ and CD44+ population using FACS analysis. SQE inhibited colony ...

Obesity is one of the global epidemic problems and major risk factors for many metabolic diseases. D-Xylose has been used as an alternative sweetener due to its low absorption rate in the gut. The ...

Colon cancer remains one of the major cancer types and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S as well as in Korea. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a small subpopulation of cancer cells th...

Diabetes mellitus is a complex metabolic disease. Type 2 diabetes is more frequent and characterized by insulin resistance. D-xylose is a sucrose inhibitor and may be useful as a functional sugar c...

Preferential flow in hillslope systems through subsurface networks developed from a range of botanical, faunal and geophysical processes have been observed and inferred for decades and may provide a large component of the bulk transport of water and solutes. However, our dominant paradigm for understanding and modelling hillslope hydrologic processes is still based on the Darcy–Richards matric flow framework, now with a set of additional methods to attempt to reproduce some of the aggregate function of the two-phase system of network and matrix flow. We call for a community effort to design and implement a set of well planned experiments in different natural and constructed hillslopes, coupled with the development of new theory and methods to explicitly incorporate and couple the co-evolution of subsurface flow networks as intrinsic components of hydrological, ecological and geomorphic systems. This is a major community challenge that can now benefit from new experimental infrastructure, renewal of older infrastructure and recent advances in sensor systems and computational capacity but will also require a sustained and organized interdisciplinary approach. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Strokes are the third leading cause of death in the Korea and cause long-term disability. In particular, 80% of total strokes are ischemic strokes in Western countries. Although a high intake of fr...

Sasa quelpaertensis Nakai is a species of bamboo grasses grown in Mt.Halla on Jeju Island in South Korea. Sasa leaves have been suggested to have anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory effects. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a disease characterized by chronic inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. The aim of this study is to investigate the possible protective role of Sasa quelpaertensis leaf extract (SQE) on dextran sodium sulphate (DSS)-induced colitis in mice model. We found that SQE attenuated the severity of IBD assessed by disease activity index (DAI) score, shrinkage of colon length, and histopathological changes. SQE also significantly suppressed the DSS-induced serum inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6. Furthermore, SQE down-regulates the expression of TNF- α, COX-2, iNOS, NF-kB, and PPARγ. Furthermore, SQE down-regulated ERK1/2 phosphorylation, but not p38 or JNK. These results suggest that SQE may a protective role in gut inflammation including ...

Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial solid cancer in young children and malignant NB cells possess cancer stem cells (CSCs) characteristics. The successful elimination of CSCs is a good strategy for developing effective preventive and chemotherapeutic agent. CSCs possess characteristics, including differentiation and turmorigenicity. Although β-carotene has been associated with many anticancer mechanisms, there is the lack of evidence in the efficacy β-carotene on CSCs. In the present study, we investigated the effects of β-carotene on tumor cell differentiation and tumorigenicity using xenograft model which were injected with SK-N-BE(2)C NB cells subcutaneously. We found that β-carotene supplementation significantly inhibited tumor incidence as well as growth compared to tumor control. Furthermore, β-carotene was shown to induce tumor cell differentiation by up-regulating vimentin, peripherin, and neurofilament expression. On the other hand, β-carotene significantly suppressed tumor stemnes...

Infant feeding is one of the significant determinants of the intestinal microbiota in early life. Although numerous researches have performed to investigate the bacteria community in the infant gut, culture-based methods had showed limited bacteria population. Recently, pyrosequencing, a new high throughtput DNA sequencing technique, has been introduced and applied to explore microbiome. The purpose of this study was to compare the compositions of the fecal microbiota of Korean infants fed breast milk to those of infants fed milk formula. We examined microbial communities in fecal samples collected from 20 Korean infants at 4 weeks of age using pyrosequencing. Diversity analysis of total microbiota sequences revealed that a more diverse collection in milk formula-fed infants (MFI), whereas, the probiotics, including S. salivarius, L. gasseri, and B. longum were abundant in the microbiota of breast milk-fed infants (BFI). Moreover, Bifidobacteriaceae were significantly abundant in BFI compared with those o...

Parenteral administration of N-acetyl-L-glutamine (NAQ) produces substantial urinary losses. To evaluate enteral utility, we examined NAQ hydrolysis by acylase I, a critical first step in biological utilization, NAQ was quantitatively hydrolyzed to glutamine in vitro, Enzyme kinetic parameters were compared for NAQ (Km = 11.4 mM, Vmax = 5.54 nmole glutamine/min/μg enzyme) and an approved food additive, N-acetyl-L-methionine (NAM) (Km = 1.36 mM, Vmax = 7.48 nmole methionine/min/μg enzyme). These data indicated preference for NAM in substrate recognition (Km), but similar relative catalytic ability (Vmax), While NAQ is possibly a suitable enteral substrate recognition (Km), but similar relative catalytic ability (Vmax). While NAQ is possibly a suitable enteral glutamine source, utility will depend on intestinal acylase I levels and intestinal residence times not yet determined. L'administration parenterale de la N-acetyl-L-glutamine (NAQ) engendre des pertes urinaires substantielles. Pour evaluer son administration enterale, cette etude examine l'hydrolyse de la NAQ par l'acylase, premiere etape critique dans l'utilisation biologique. La NAQ est hydrolysee quantitativement en glutamine in vitro. Les parametres cinetiques enzymatiques sont compares pour la NAQ et un additif alimentaire approuve, la N-acetyl-L-methionine.

Neuroblastoma is a malignant tumor of the neural crest and the most prevalent pediatric solid tumor. Malignant neuroblastoma cells resemble stem cell/progenitor cells possessing differentiable and ...

We investigated the relationship between dietary factors and allergic disease (AD) in Korean adolescents, aged 12–18 years, using the data of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Sur...