This review presents current progress in the preparation methods of liquid crystalline nanocarbon materials and the liquid crystalline spinning method for producing nano-carbon fibers. In particular, we focus on the fabrication of liquid crystalline carbon nanotubes by spinning from superacids, and the continuous production of macroscopic fiber from liquid crystalline graphene oxide.

This study investigated the effects of rare-earth fertilizer on the shoot cuttings’ rooting of Vitex rotundifolia L. and Tamarix chinensis Lour. The shoot cutting test was carried in 2008 and the main results are summarized as follows. The rate of rooting and the average roots increased in both number and length when rare-earth fertilizer is treated in V. rotundifolia and T. chinensis in comparison to those of the untreated control plot. In particular, when rare-earth fertilizer is diluted with water 1/2500, the rooting outstandingly increases. This result is almost similar to the effect of the rooting stimulant, IAA. Although there is no differentiation in its rooting rate according to the density, the rooting of T. chinensis shows a 100 percent effect on in the entire treated plot but not in the untreated control plot, so it is usable as a rooting stimulant. As for shoot cuttings' rooting, depending on the time immersed in diluted solution of rare-earth fertilizer, both V. rotundifolia and T. chinensis showed relatively higher percentages in all treatment plot immersed for 60 minutes than for 10 minutes. In conclusion, considering the results of the rooting percentage and the average number and length of roots of V. rotundifolia and T. chinensis, the shoot cuttings' rooting appeared higher in percentage when they were immersed in the rooting stimulant for sixty minutes with a lower density than 1/2500. This result shows that rare-earth fertilizer can be utilized as an alterative for IAA rooting stimulants currently available in the market.

We identified two soil stichotrichs, Eschaneustyla lugeri Foissner, Agatha & Berger, 2002 and Oxytricha auripunctata Blatterer & Foissner, 1988, which were collected from Sarabong, Jeju and Ajoong-ri, Jeonju in Korea, respectively. Eschaneustyla lugeri had the following characteristics: size in vivo 170-230 μm×40-60 μm; body elongate elliptical and often very narrow in the posterior region, highly flexible; cortical granules present; 48-67 macronuclear nodules; 27-47 frontal cirri; 3-5 buccal cirri; frontoterminal row and rightmost midventral row; transverse cirri absent; 4 dorsal kineties; 4-9 caudal cirri. Oxytricha auripunctata had the following characteristics: size in vivo 75-95 μm×25-35 μm; body elliptical, both ends moderately narrowly rounded; orange-yellow cortical granules and yellowish crystals; 3-4 transverse cirri; 5 dorsal kineties; 3 caudal cirri. These two ciliates are first reported in Korea. We describe these ciliates based on live observations and protargol-impregnated specimens.

We discovered three soil ciliates of the class Colpodea-Colpoda henneguyi Fabre- Domergue, 1889; C. lucida Greeff, 1888; and Bursaria truncatella Müller, 1773 from Obong-ri, Ayajin-ri and Elwang-ri (Korea), respectively. Colpoda henneguyi had the following features: often wider preorally than postorally, size in vivo 60-80 μm×50-70 μm; extrusomes indistinct in vivo, cylindroid approximately 1 μm long; notches caused by deep diagonal groove; yellowish globules on the cortex of the cell; 10-12 postoral kineties; silverline system aspera-type. Colpoda lucida exhibited the following features: broadly reniform, size in vivo 70-90 μm×50-70 μm; conspicuous extrusomes, 3.5-5 μm long in vivo, cylindroid to fusiform; 13-16 postoral kineties; silverline system cucullus-type. Bursaria truncatella had the following features: bursiform, size in vivo 300-470 μm×120-260 μm; macronucleus coiled with highly variable shapes, 600-1100 μm×30-40 μm long in vivo; micronuclei 16-25 in number, approximately 4 μm in diameter; extrusomes cylindroid, 3-4 μm long in vivo. This is the first report of colpodean ciliates from Korea, and we describe these species based on observations of live and impregnated (protargol and silver nitrate impregnation) specimens.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the antibacterial effect of the low temperature atmospheric plasma device with needle tip designed for easy approach to the oral cavity and root canal against Streptococcus mutans, Enterococcus faecalis and Candida albicans. The antibacterial activities evaluated by measuring clear zone of agar plate smeared with each bacteria after plasma treatment. To quantify antibacterial effects, dilution plate method was used. In addition, scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used for observation of changes in bacterial morphology. As treatment time of plasma increased, the clear zone was enlarged. The death rate was more than 99%. The SEM results showed that the globular shape of bacteria was distorted. These results suggest that needle tip plasma could be an innovative device for prevention of dental caries, and treatment of apical infection and soft tissue diseases.

This study explored the effects of creativity-based L2 poem writing (CBLPW) for EFL college students. A total of 40 college students participated, who were assigned to two conditions-non-creativity and creativity groups. The present study employed pre-, post-, and delayed-tests for creativity using the Torrance Test of Creativity, pre-, post-, and delayed-evaluations of L2 poem writing quality, and pre- and post-questionnaires for participants' affective domain. The results showed immediate and sustained effects of CBLPW on creativity, and writing quality. In addition, an overall positive effect of CBLPW was observed in the affective domain such as interests, confidence, and motivation for the two groups. These findings suggest that teachers could offer students a wide range of creativity techniques in order to enhance their levels of creativity, L2 poem writing quality, and the affective domain of learners.

Medical mushroom, Phellinus linteus and Phellinus baumii called as “Sanghwang” have cultivated in Korea. PL has been studied extensively for its extraordinary capacity of suppressing cancer or enhancing body immunity. The mycelial materials of PL have mainly been used as research samples worldwide because fruiting bodies was difficult to be artificially cultivated. Alternatively, P. baumii (variety, ‘Jangsu’) have been cultivated in Korea. However, fruiting body morphology of P. baumii is clearly different to that of PL. Generally, Phellinus spp. including P. linteus slowly grow on artificial medium such as Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA). In contrast, P. baumii strains were rapidly grown on the artificial media when compared to other Phellinus spp. and thus it was considerable that its mycelial growing ability can be acted as a factor for producing fruiting bodies. This study aimed to find Phellinus isolates having high mycelial growth rate. Five Phellinus isolates that show rapid growth rate on YGM medium were selected from 36 Phellinus isolates collected in Korea. They were identified on nucleotide sequences of rDNA-ITS region. Phellinus linteus strain and Phellinus spp. showing mycelial growth rate comparing to P. baumii were characterized on cultural and bioactive characteristics (antioxidant activity and immune activation).

We address improved plant image segmentation based on histograms which requires using a vegetation index and threshold. Image segmentation is the most important step for extracting targets, such as vegetation, from images; this affects successful detection of plant information. Forty-two field images were acquired from a soybean field using an RGB camera. Through K-means clustering analysis, we built a new vegetation index        and generated gray-scale images. Otsu and Triangle thresholds were used to convert contrast images to binary. Optimal threshold values were generally located between the Otsu and Triangle threshold values. The combined threshold method shows 98.79% and 0.95% of mean accuracy and standard deviation, respectively, whereas the Otsu and Triangle method results show 98.17±1.71% and 97.85±1.87%, respectively. These results show that the combined method has significant segmentation potential through one-way ANOVA. Then we compared the results with K-means clustering using two-sample t-test. The K-means method’s mean accuracy is 98.18±1.79%, with no significant difference between the proposed and K-means methods. However, the proposed method’s processing time is 0.60±0.01 s, i.e., twice faster than the K-means method (1.72±0.24 s).