최근 국내외 화장품과 식품산업에서 다양하게 사용되어 지고 있는 콜라겐 단백질 제품은 점차 그 용도와 특성에 따라 보다 고도화, 기능화 되어 가고 있다. 피부 건강의 지표인 콜라겐은 다양한 용도로 개발되어 사용되고 있으 며, 콜라겐의 소비가 증가함에 따라 용도에 적합한 최적 화된 콜라겐 제품의 개발이 중요한 연구 분야이다. 특히 여러 기업과 연구기관들에 의해서 콜라겐의 흡수율을 높 이기 위한 다양한 노력이 이루어지고 있다. 따라서 본 연 구에서는 프란즈(Franz) 세포 시스템을 이용하여 국내에서 판매되는 다양한 분자량별 콜라겐 제품의 경피 및 구강 상피세포 투과성을 비교하였다. 그 결과, 피부 표피/진피 조직과 비교하여 구강점막 조직의 콜라겐 흡수율이 분자 량 500달톤과 1,000달톤의 경우 모두 통계적으로 유의하 게(각각 약 10배, 2배) 높은 것으로 확인되었다. 또한, 분 자량별 구강점막 조직 흡수율을 비교한 결과, 분자량 500 달톤의 콜라겐이 분자량 1,000달톤 제품에 비해 흡수율이 2-3배 증가함을 확인하였다. 분자량 500달톤의 경우 Cmax 와 AUCt 값이 가장 높게 나타났으며, 피부 표피/진피 세 포에 비해 구강점막세포 시험군의 모든 지표가 높은 것으 로 나타났다. 본 연구 결과는 피부 흡수보다는 구강 점막 세포를 통한 콜라겐의 흡수방법이 콜라겐 체내 흡수증가 에 유효한 수단임을 시사하며, 분자량 1,000달톤 이하에서 도 보다 더 작은 500달톤의 저분자 콜라겐의 흡수율이 증 가되는 것으로 보아 콜라겐의 분자량이 흡수율 증가의 주 요한 요소임을 확인할 수 있었다.

귀뚜라미는 단백질 함량이 높고 필수아미노산이 풍부하여 세계적으로 식용과 사료용 곤충으로서 가치가 높 다. 국내에서 쌍별귀뚜라미(Gryllus bimaculatus)는 사육이 용이하다는 장점이 있고 주로 파충류, 물고기 등의 사료로 대량 소비되고 있기 때문에 매우 중요한 산업곤충으로 자리매김하고 있다. 그러나 최근 쌍별귀뚜라미의 활동성이 저하되고 다리가 마비되는 등 이상 증상이 발생하여 대량 폐사된 농가가 급증하였다. 이에 대한 원인을 규명하기 위해 질병 발생 농가로부터 귀뚜라미 시료를 수집하여 RNA를 추출하고 metatranscriptomic analysis 를 수행하였다. 그 결과, 신규한 덴소바이러스(Densovirus)가 대량 폐사의 원인임을 밝혀내었고, 이 바이러스를 Gryllus bimaculatus densovirus (GbDV)로 명명하였다. 또한, GbDV의 유전체 분석 결과, genome size는 5,643 bp로 5개의 ORFs(Open Reading Frames)을 포함하며, 왼쪽에는 세 개의 Non-structural proteins을 포함하는 유전자(NS1, NS2, NS3)가 존재했고 오른쪽에는 두 개의 Structural proteins을 포함하는 유전자(VP1, VP2)가 존재했다. 본 연구 는 알 수 없는 곤충 질병의 원인을 밝혀내어 해당 질병에 대한 모니터링을 가능케 함으로써 산업곤충 질병의 예찰하고 확산을 방지하는 데 기여할 것으로 사료된다.

Insects, including aphids, caterpillars, and beetles, have a significant impact on biodiversity, ecology, and the economy by consuming various plant tissues like leaves, stems, and fruits, leading to issues such as holes, defoliation, and impaired growth. Consequently, our study's primary goal was to establish a model system capable of identifying and tracking insects, covering aspects like their behaviors, movements, sizes, and patterns. Our research has successfully produced a 3D monitoring system specifically designed for continuous insect tracking by applying it to brown planthopper. This technology allows for in-depth exploration of insect behaviors and their interactions with plants and crops. The potential applications of this technique are highly promising, offering valuable assistance to researchers in unraveling insect behavior and ecological dynamics and driving further advancements in these crucial research areas.

The separation of hydrogen isotopes is a critical issue in various fields, such as deuterium or tritium production and the treatment of radioactively contaminated water. In this presentation, we describe the pervaporative separation of hydrogen isotopes using proton conductive membranes and underlying separation mechanism. We investigated the H/D separation factors of perfluorosulfonic acid (Nafion) and polybenzimidazole membranes using pervaporation, and found that both membranes exhibited similar separation factors of approximately 1.026. Water permeation flux through the membranes was highly dependent on their thickness and type, and increased with operation temperature. However, the effect of temperature on H/D separation factor was negligible. We also demonstrated the cascade separation of H/D, indicating the potential application of multi-stage operation. We found that surface transport mechanisms such as hydron hopping contributed the most to H/D separation during the pervaporation process of proton conductive membranes.

The safe, efficient and cost-effective decommissioning and dismantling of radioactive facilities requires the accurate characterization of the radionuclide activities and dose rate environment. And it is critical across many nuclear industries to identify and locate sources of radiation accurately and quickly. One of the more challenging aspects of dealing with radiation is that you cannot see it directly, which can result in potential exposure when working in those environments. Generally, semiconductor detectors have better energy resolution than scintillation detectors, but the maximum achievable count rates are limited by long pulse signals. Whereas some high pure germanium detectors have been developed to operate at high count rates, and these HPGe detectors could obtain gamma-ray spectra at high count rates exceeding 1 Mcps. However, HPGe detectors require cooling devices to reduce the leak currents, which becomes disadvantageous when developing portable radiation detectors. Furthermore, chemicalcompound semiconductor detectors made of cadmium telluride and cadmium zinc telluride are popular, because they have good energy resolution and are available at room temperature. However, CdTe and CZT detectors develop irradiation-induced defects under intense gamma-ray fields. In this Review, we start with the fundamentals of gamma rays detection and review the recent developments in scintillators gamma-ray detectors. The key factors affecting the detector performance are summarized. We also give an outlook on the field, with emphasis on the challenges to be overcome.

Montmorillonite plays a key role in engineered barrier systems in the high-level radioactive waste repository because of its large sorption capacity and high swelling pressure. However, the sorption capacity of montmorillonite can be largely varied dependent on the surrounding environments. This study conducted the batch simulation for U(VI) sorption on Na-montmorillonite by utilizing the cation exchange and surface complexation coupled (2SP-NE-SC/CE) model and evaluated the effects of physicochemical properties (i.e., pH, temperature, competing cations, U(VI) concentration, and carbonate species) on U(VI) sorption. The simulation demonstrated that the U(VI) sorption was affected by physicochemical properties: the pH and temperature relate to aqueous U(VI) speciation, the competing cations relate to the cation exchange process and selectivity, the U(VI) concentration relates to saturation at sorption sites. For example, the Kd (L kg−1) of Na-montmorillonite represented the largest values of 2.7×105 L kg−1 at neutral pH condition and had significantly decreased at acidic pH<3, showing non-linear and diverse U(VI) sorption at the ranged pH from 2 to 11. Additionally, the U(VI) sorption on montmorillonite significantly decreased in presence of carbonate species. The U(VI) sorption for long-term in actual porewater chemistry and temperature of high-level radioactive waste repository represented that the sorption capacity of Na-montmorillonite was affected by various external properties such as concentration of competing cation, temperature, pH, and carbonate species. These results indicate that geochemical sorption capacity of bentonite should be evaluated by considering both geological and aquifer environments in the high-level radioactive waste repository.

Mitochondrial genomes of three specimens of Gadus chalcogrammus Pallas 1,814 from Korea and Japan were completely analyzed by the primer walking method. They were 16,570~16,571 bp in length, each comprising 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, and 22 transfer RNA genes. Their gene orders were identical to those of conspecific specimens, but exhibited unique haplotypes. In the phylogenetic tree, the juvenile Korean and adult Japanese specimens were separated from the dominant clade composed of specimens from Japan, Korea, the Bering Sea, and the Arctic, including the adult Korean specimen.

Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) is one of the generation-IV advanced nuclear reactors in which hightemperature molten salt mixture is used as the primary coolant, or even the fuel itself unlike most nuclear reactors that adopt solid fuels. The MSR has received a great attention because of its excellent thermal efficiency, high power density, and structural simplicity. In particular, since the MSR uses molten salts with boiling points higher than the exit temperature of the reactor core, there is no severe accident such as a core melt-down which leads to a hydrogen explosion. In addition, it is possible to remove the residual heat through a completely passive way and when the fuel salt leaks to the outside, it solidifies at room-temperature without releasing radioactive fission products such as cesium, which make the MSR inherently safe. Both fluoride and chloride mixtures can be used as liquid fuel salts by adding actinide halides for MSRs. However, the MSRs using chloride-based salt fuels can be operated for a long time without adding nuclear fuel or online reprocessing because the actinide solubility in chloride salts is about six times higher than that in fluoride salts. Therefore, the chloride-based MSRs are more effective for the transmutation of long-lived radionuclides such as transuranic elements than the fluoride-based MSRs, which is beneficial to resolve the high radioactive spent nuclear fuel generated from light water reactors (LWRs). This paper examines liquid fuel fabrication using an improved U chlorination process for the chloride-based MSRs and presents the strategy for the management of gaseous fission products generated during the operation of MSR.

This study deals with replacement analysis of deteriorated equipment for improving productivity of production system. Frequent breakdown of the deteriorated equipment causes a situation that reduces productivity such as low product quality, process delay, and repair cost. However, the replacement of new equipment will be required a high initial investment cost, so it is important to analysis the economic feasibility. Therefore, we analyze the effect of the production system due to the aging effect of the equipment and the feasibility of equipment replacement based on the economic analysis. The process flow, working time, logistics movement, etc. are analyzed in order to build the simulation modeling for a ship and land switchboard production system. Using numerical examples, the economic feasibility analysis of equipment replacement through replacement of existing deteriorated equipment and additional arrangement of new facilities is performed.

Olfactory receptors (OR) are primarily responsible for the detection of odorant molecules. We previously demonstrated that OR7D4, an OR for androstenone, is expressed in the vomeronasal organ and olfactory epithelium tissue of stallions. Recently, the expression of OR1I1 in the human testes was reported and the possible roles of OR1I1 in the testicular cells were suggested. The objectives of this study were 1) to explore the expression of OR7D4 and OR1I1 in stallion testes, and 2) to define the specific localization of OR7D4 and OR1I1 in the testicular tissues. Stallion testicular tissue samples were used for this study. Western blot was performed to confirm the cross-reactivity of OR7D4 and OR1I1 antibody with stallion testicular tissue samples. OR7D4 and OR1I1 gene expressions were investigated using reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in stallion testes. Immunofluorescence was performed to investigate the expression of OR7D4 and OR1I1 in stallion testicular tissues. The protein bands for OR7D4 and OR1I1 from the testes were observed at approximately 38 kDa and 43 kDa, respectively. The mRNA of OR7D4 and OR1I1 were detected in stallion testes. Immunolabeling of OR7D4 and OR1I1 in the cytoplasm of both spermatogonia and Leydig cells was observed. In conclusion, androstenone and another odorant chemical, which is recognized by OR1I1, may play an important role in stallion testes.

In the dismantling process of a reactor coolant system (RCS) piping, a radiation protection plan should be established to minimize the radiation exposure doses of dismantling workers. Hence, it is necessary to estimate the individual effective dose in the RCS piping dismantling process when decommissioning a nuclear power plant. In this study, the radiation exposure doses of the dismantling workers at different positions was estimated using the MicroShield dose assessment program based on the NUREG/CR-1595 report. The individual effective dose, which is the sum of the effective dose to each tissue considering the working time, was used to estimate the radiation exposure dose. The estimations of the simulation results for all RCS piping dismantling tasks satisfied the dose limits prescribed by the ICRP-60 report. In dismantling the RCS piping of the Kori-1 or Wolsong-1 units in South Korea, the estimation and reduction method for the radiation exposure dose, and the simulated results of this study can be used to implement the radiation safety for optimal dismantling by providing information on the radiation exposure doses of the dismantling workers.

In horse management, the alarm system with sensors in the foaling period enables the breeder can appropriately prepare the time of the parturition. It is important to prevent losses by unpredictable parturition because there are several high risks such as dystocia and the death of foals and mares during foaling. However, unlike analysis in the alarm system that detects specific motions has been widely performed, analysis of classification following specific behavior patterns or number needs to be more organized. Thus, the objective of this study is to classify signs of the specific behaviors of the mares for the prediction of pre-foaling behaviors. Five Thoroughbred mares (9-20 yrs) were randomly selected for observation of the prefoaling behaviors. The behaviors were monitored for 90 min that was divided into three different periods as 1) from -90 to -60 min, 2) from -60 to -30 min, 3) from -30 min to the time for the discharge of the amniotic fluid, respectively. The behaviors were divided into two different categories as state and frequent behaviors and each specific behavioral pattern for classification was individually described. In the state behaviors, the number of mares in the standing of the foaling group (3.17 ± 0.18b) at period 3 was significantly higher than the control group (1.67 ± 0.46a). In contrast, the number of the mares in the eating of the foaling group (1.17 ± 0.34b) at period 3 was significantly lower than the control group (3.33 ± 0.46a). In the frequent behaviors, the weaving of the foaling group was significantly higher than the control group, and looking at the belly of the foaling group was significantly lower than the control group. In period 2, defecation, weaving, and lowering the head of the foaling group were significantly higher than the control group, respectively. In period 3, sitting down and standing up, pawing, weaving, and lowering the head in the foaling group were also significantly higher than the control group. In conclusion, the behavior is significantly different in foaling periods, and the prediction of foaling may be feasible by the detection of the pre-foaling behaviors in the mares.