One aspect of securing safety from the operation of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) is to evaluate the impact on residents at the facility’s exclusive area boundary to confirm that the radiological risk is below the allowable level. Normally, the risks from gaseous and liquid effluents are evaluated during the operation of facilities. Meanwhile, in order to be approved for the decommissioning plan, the environmental risks caused by activities during dismantling is also evaluated. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the exposure pathways considered in evaluating the risks to nearby residents from the operation and decommissioning of nuclear facilities and to examine the differences. The emission rate by radionuclide is calculated by evaluating the amount of leak from nuclear fuel during the operation of the facility through design data of the NPP. Each of the liquid and gaseous effluents is calculated, and the exposure dose received by nearby residents is calculated by considering the exposure pathways with these emission rates. In order to initiate the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, approval of the Final Decommissioning Plan (FDP) must be obtained. The FDP chapter shall describe the results of the environmental impact assessment of the decommissioning. It will not differ significantly in the exposure pathways during operation. However, the decommissioning of nuclear facilities is ultimately to remove Systems, Structures, and Components (SSCs) and to remove the regulation of the Nuclear Safety Act by ensuring that sites and remaining buildings meet the criteria for the license termination. In terms of release and reuse of nuclear facilities, the exposure dose to be considered in evaluating the dose can be considered for two main types: the site and the remaining building. The factors affecting the exposure pathways considered in assessing the environmental impacts considered in the operation and decommissioning of nuclear facilities are due to gaseous and liquid effluents. However, the difference should reflect the impact of NPP operations and decommissioning activities when evaluating the amount of radionuclides released by these effluents. Decommissioning should consider the impact after decommissioning, which is the effect of the receptor by radionuclides remaining on the site and in the remaining buildings. At this time, the effects of the source from the soil and the source from the surface of the building should be considered for the external and internal exposure pathways.

Kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala) is one of the most frequently consumed leafy vegetables globally, as it contains numerous nutrients; essential amino acids, phenolics, vitamins, and minerals, and is particularly rich in glucosinolates. However, the differences in the biosynthesis of glucosinolates and related gene expression among kale cultivars has been poorly reported. In this study, we investigated glucosinolates profile and content in three different kale cultivars, including green (‘Man-Choo’ and ‘Mat-Jjang’) and red kale (‘Red-Curled’) cultivars grown in a vertical farm, using transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses. The growth and development of the green kale cultivars were higher than those of the red kale cultivar at 6 weeks after cultivation. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis revealed five glucosinolates in the ‘Man-Choo’ cultivar, and four glucosinolates in the ‘Mat-Jjang’ and ‘Red-Curled’ cultivars. Glucobrassicin was the most predominant glucosinolate followed by gluconastrutiin in all the cultivars. In contrast, other glucosinolates were highly dependent to the genotypes. The highest total glucosinolates was found in the ‘Red-Curled’ cultivar, which followed by ‘Man-Choo’ and ‘Mat-Jjang’. Based on transcriptome analysis, eight genes were involved in glucosinolate biosynthesis. The overall results suggest that the glucosinolate content and accumulation patterns differ according to the kale cultivar and differential expression of glucosinolate biosynthetic genes.

Interferon tau (IFNT) regulation, an anti-luteolytic factor produced by conceptuses of the ruminant ungulates, is essential for the maintenance of early pregnancy, but a definitive mechanism for its temporal transcription has not been elucidated. We and others have observed the T-box protein eomesodermin (EOMES) exhibited high mRNA expression in the ovine embryonic trophectoderm; thus, both caudal-relatedhomeobox-2 (CDX2) and EOMES coexist during the early stages of conceptus development. Objective of this study was to examine the effect of EOMES on ovine IFNT gene transcription when evaluated with CDX2, ETS2 and AP1 transcription factors implicated in the control of cell differentiation in the trophectoderm. In this study, quantitatively via reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis between ovine trophoblast cells was initially performed, finding that transcription factors CDX2 and ‘EOMES transcription factor mRNAs’ were specific to trophectoderm cells. These mRNAs were also found in days 15, 17, and 21 ovine conceptuses. Furthermore, human choriocarcinoma JEG3 cells (trophoblast cell line) were cotransfected with an ovine IFNT (-654bp)-luciferase reporter (-654-oIFNT-Luc) construct and several transcription factor expression plasmids. Cotransfection of the reporter construct with CDX2, ETS2 and AP1 increased transcription of -654-oIFNT-Luc by about 11-fold compared with transfection of the construct alone. When cells were initially transfected with EOMES followed by transfection with CDX2, ETS2 and/or AP1, the expression of -654-oIFNT-Luc was decreased. Also, EOMES factor inhibited the stimulatory activity of CDX2 alone. These results suggest that when conceptuses attach to the uterine epithelium, ovine IFNT gene transcription is down-regulated by an increase of EOMES factor expression in the attached ovine trophoblast cells.

Wikstroemia ganpi grow the southern coastal regions in Korea, small population and are classified as a critically endangered species. The majority of habitats are located near forest paths and reservoirs at the edge of mountains, indicating that there is considerable human interference and severe fragmentation of populations, as well as damage to individuals as a result of forest fires and soil erosion. We evaluated the genetic diversity in populations, genetic differentiation between populations, and genetic structure to provide data to support the conservation of W. ganpi. W. ganpi populations showed lower genetic diversity(mean level: P.95=36%, S.I=0.170, h=0.113) and higher genetic differentiation(40%) between populations than other species with similar characteristics did. And the among population gene flow(Nm) was highly restricted at 0.87. The four populations revealed that there were fixed alleles in the different loci of each population. This result can be explained by the effects of genetic drift. Structure analysis and the PCA results were more indicative of separate groups than a genetic structure that was linked to populations. This reflects the high level of genetic differentiation between populations and the unique alleles within each population. As a result, lower genetic diversity and higher genetic differentiation between populations of W. ganpi. And the effects of inbreeding were observed, as well as asexual reproduction in some populations. Therefore, to conserve W. ganpi, all the surveyed populations need to be designated for on-site conservation and monitored continually. A research on the spatial genetic structure needs to be conducted to obtain information on sample extraction for off-site conservation. This structure would be able to minimize the wasting of samples that could be obtained from limited genetic resources and would enable further focused and efficient management.

Cell-free fetal RNA has been highlighted as useful tools for the fetal sex determination or other genetic inherent disorder. However, there is no knowledge about the sex determination using cell free fetal RNA in bovine field. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the presence of transcripts of DDX3Y, USP9Y and ZRSR2Y genes in maternal plasma of pregnant cows to determine the sex of the fetus using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay, and verify its accuracy, sensitivity and specificity compared with the molecular testing and the calf sex at birth. Transcripts of USP9Y and DDX3Y genes were expressed in the all plasma of males and females both the control group and the experimental group. However, ZRSR2Y gene was matched up with the molecular testing and the true sex in control group and has an overall accuracy of 82.6%, a sensitivity of 75%, and a specificity of 100% in experimental group. Therefore, these results indicated that real time PCR technique, as a noninvasive and cost-efficient method, is possible to determination fetal sex in the bovine species using circulating cell free RNA in maternal plasma and especially ZRSR2Y gene could be a good candidate for the RNA based sex determination work.

In Korea, wide spread use of whole cottonseed, which is primarily a GMO plant imported from foreign countries and being fed to animals as raw state, has aroused concern that it may disturb the existing ecology of the country unless dispersion of the seed is under proper control. The objective of this study was to elucidate the changes in various nutritive parameters due to heat treatment and to determine the effective condition for removing germination ability of whole cottonseed (WCS). Of the various temperatures applied (76, 78, 80, 85, 100°C/30 min) 85°C for 30 min was confirmed to be the lowest temperature treatment which resulted in a complete removal of the germination ability of WCS. Therefore, based on the determined temperature condition (85°C 30 min) we tried to examine the changes of various nutritional parameters, including nutrient composition, in vitro digestibilities and ruminal protein degradabilities, comparing raw whole cotton seed (RWCS) and heated whole cotton seed (HWCS). Some changes in amino acid composition were observed with heat treatment of WCS, but these were regarded to originate from the variation in plant quality and seed morphology, which are usually affected by different environmental factors during the vegetation period. As for fatty acid composition, no significant differences were observed to occur during heat treatment. However, WCS heated at 85°C for 30 min in a circulating oven showed a significant decrease (p<0.05) of in situ rumen degradability in both dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP), as compared to raw WCS. Overall results obtained in the study indicate that the heating condition used in this study, which was proven to be the most appropriate and economic to remove germination ability of WCS, may also improve the nutritional value of the ruminant with regard to reducing its protein degradability within the rumen.

The aim of this study was to estimate of ovulation time and parturition day at the same time as breeding in small dog by vaginal cytology and to confirm the accuracy by comparing the expected parturition day and the real one. Characteristic features of vaginal cytology during the estrous cycle were the high proportion of large intermediate cell, superficial cell, anuclear cell and erythrocyte in proestrus, superficial cell and anuclear cell in estrus, parabasal cell, small intermediate cell, large intermediate cell and leukocyte in diestrus, parabasal cell and small intermediate in anestrus, respectively. When day 0 was the parturition day, the period of pregnancy is 67.45(64～75) days when the cornification index (CI) is over 90%. Also, on the basis of ovulation day, 63.65(59～66) days was confirmed, and 57.0(52～60) days was confirmed based on the first day of diestrus. There are the gap of 4 days between the day being over 90% in CI and ovulation day. On the basis of this, when expecting parturition day based on the day being over 90% in CI by vaginal cytology, 18.1% was produced in the same of the expected parturition day and the real one, 30.3% and 33.3% were produced in the gap of one day and two days, respectively so, the accuracy within two days was 81.7%. In addition, based on the first day of diestrus, it also was identified to 81.7% as the difference between the expected parturition day and the real one within 2 days. It demonstrated there are any difference between any expected parturition day by vaginal cytology. Thus on the basis of the day of being over 90% CI, it is fully thought to using clinically due to the possibility of prediction the parturition day at the same time as the determination of the proper time of the optimal mating time.