We report the use of face mask materials as a carbon precursor for the synthesis of multi- and single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in an open-loop chemical recycling process. Novel surgical mask precursors were suspended in toluene and injected into a chemical vapor deposition reactor previously optimized for CNT production using liquid injection. The CNTs were collected and characterized using resonant Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) before being turned into fibrils that were tested for electrical conductance. Once confirmed and repeated for statistical accuracy, a CNT-based Ethernet cable was manufactured and tested using iPerf3 for uplink and downlink speeds exceeding broadband standards worldwide. Radial breathing modes from Raman spectroscopy indicate single walled CNTs (SWCNTs) with diameters ranging from 0.8 to 1.55 nm and this matches well with TEM observations of SWCNTs with 1.5 nm diameter. This work pushes the horizon of feedstocks useful for CNT and SWCNT production in particular; this work demonstrates upcycling of materials fated for disposal into materials with positive net value and plenty of real-world applications.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a very deadly and highly contagious disease that occurs in various cloven-hoofed animals. Korea imports vaccines including non-vaccinated serotype for the vaccine bank. The two company vaccines imported from 2019 to 2021 were evaluated through multiple tests based on national standard assay. SN titers for the vaccine of company A were more than 1.5 log10, those of company B vaccine in the geometric mean were at least 1.72. All imported vaccines exceeded the evaluation criteria, and the potency of each vaccine was above its own company standard. Stockpiled vaccines for emergency may help to control non-vaccinated serotypes of FMD outbreak nationally.

Subunit vaccines are being developed as a potential therapy for preventing microbial pathogen infection. In this study, the immunogenicity of recombinant Brucella (B.) abortus Fe/Mn superoxide dismutase (rFe/Mn SOD) protein as a subunit vaccine against B. abortus was investigated in BALB/c mice model. Brucella Fe/Mn SOD gene was cloned into a pcold-TF DNA vector. The bacterial recombinant protein was expressed using the Escherichia coli DH5α strain with a size of 82.50 kDa. The western blotting assay showed that rFe/Mn SOD reacted with Brucella-positive serum, indicating the potential immunoreactivity of this recombinant protein. After the second and third vaccinations, the peripheral CD4+ T cell population was increased significantly in the rFe/Mn SOD-immunized mice group compared to the PBS control group. Moreover, immunization of this recombinant protein increased the CD4+ T cell population from the first vaccination to the third vaccination. Meanwhile, the CD8+ T cells were slightly enhanced after the second vaccination compared to the first vaccination and compared to control groups. Fourteen days after the bacterial infection, the splenomegaly and the number of bacteria in the spleen were evaluated. The result showed that both rFe/Mn SOD and positive control RB51 decreased the bacterial replication in the spleen and the splenomegaly compared to control groups. Altogether, these results suggested that rFe/Mn SOD could induce host immunity against B. abortus infection.

Veterinary medicines have been widely used for disease protection, growth promotion, and feed efficacy development of animals. Along with development of livestock and pet industry, veterinary medicine market in Korea has increased up to 1 billion US dollar in 2021. The national post-market surveillance (NMS) assessment is important system to manage quality control of veterinary medicines that have reached the open market in Korea. In this study, post marketed veterinary medicines have been analyzed particularly for the active ingredient contents based on the rule, “Tips on animal pharmaceutical audit” and monitored the noncomplicant compounds for prevention of adverse drug event. 6,620 veterinray medicines were chosen by NVRQS-SE10-V1 software program which we developed annually in Korea during 2018-2021. The programe chooses veterinary medicines which is 70% were selected products with high sales in order, 20% were selected products with low sales randomly and 10% were noncompliant product from last year automatically, as we input year`s sales and noncompliant product data. The Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA) leads collection of veterinary medicines from manufacturing companies, drug stores, and hospitals. The NMS assay was analyzed particularly for the active ingredient ingredients performed using liquid and gas chromatography, titration, UV/Vis spectrophometer, pH, and bioassay in Korea Animal Health Production Association (KAHPA). A total of 129 cases were deemed noncompliant and the average noncompliance rate for veterinray medicines was 1.9%. Among noncompliant products violating regulations, the leading cause was insufficient quantity of major ingredients. The compounds found to be noncompliant most frequently were tylosin, spiramycin, ampicillin, amoxicillin and colistin, respectively In this study, we analyzed the results of post marketing surveillance assay from 2018 to 2021 particularly violation rate and pattern. The overall trend indicated gradually decreasing noncompliance rate from 2.7% to 1.6%, suggesting that the quality of veterinary medicines has improved according to the steadily NMS assay and settlement of Korea Veterinary Good Manufacturing Practice (KVGMP) system.

Wild birds, especially aquatic birds, are the natural reservoir of avian influenza virus (AIV), and many kinds of water body can be contaminated with feces of these birds. Seasonally, AIVs can be dissolved in the environmental water from the feces of the infected birds, and this water can be a target for viral detection and identification. In this study, we employed and tested three different filters for concentrating AIV, and it was shown that high concentration factor in terms of viral density could be achieved with viral samples diluted with natural water. Wild bird fecal samples containing low pathogenicity H5 AIVs were successfully concentrated with the adsorption and elution method using mixed cellulose esters membrane; the recovery rate of virus was 35.5 % and the concentration factor was about 50 on average. For the larger volume of water sample, we proved that an inline disposable filter with high surface area, 300 cm2, has a comparable concentration factor to the adsorption and elution method and the filter could be used in the field conveniently by being plugged into peristaltic pump. These validated methods for water sampling may be used as a supplementary for virological surveillance on wild migratory birds or during the epidemiological investigation on the environment near affected premises by AIV.

Influenza A viruses (IAVs) are members of the family Orthomyxoviridae and genus Orthomyxovirus. Avian and mammalian species are the host of IAVs, which includes humans and dogs. Canine influenza virus (CIV) is an emerging pathogen that causes severe and acute respiratory diseases in dogs. This study monitored the antigen and antibody against CIV in dogs in the Republic of Korea (ROK) from 2016 to 2021. One thousand and seventy-two nasal swabs and 1,545 blood samples were collected from animal hospitals and animal shelters. Five nasal swabs in 2017 and seven in 2018 from stray dogs were positive for CIV according to RT-PCR. The prevalence of H3N2 CIV ranged from 9.5% to 24.8%, according to the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay. On the other hand, none of the serum samples from 2018 to 2021 showed seropositivity against the avian H5, H7, and H9 viruses. The HI titers for H3N2 ranged from 16 to 512. The distribution of HI titer 16–32 was 57.6% in seropositive samples. The pet dogs were vaccinated against CIV, but the stray and military dogs were unvaccinated. In 2017 and 2018, the seroprevalence of CIV in stray dogs was higher than in the other years, and viral RNA was detected in nasal swabs. It may mean previous exposure of stray dogs to CIV. With the increasing number of pet dogs and the close contact between humans and dogs, canines could serve as an intermediate host for transmitting IAVs to humans. Therefore, continuous surveillance of CIV is needed for public health and the potential emergence of novel zoonotic viruses.

본 연구는 SAP를 국화(Chrysanthemum morifolium) 분화 생산에 활용하고 SAP의 혼합 비율에 따른 물 사용량과 국화 의 생육을 비교하고자 수행하였다. SAP를 배지의 부피비인 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2%로 섞었으며 각각의 처리구는 토양수분함 량 0.50m3･m-3로 일정하게 유지시켰다. 국화의 성장은 초장, 초폭, 뿌리 길이, 개화소요일수를 조사하였다. SAP 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2% 처리구에 따르면 식물체의 초장, 초폭, 생체중은 처리구간에 유의한 차이가 없었다. 그러나 지하부 건물중에서 는 0.2% SAP 처리가 대조구보다 유의하게 높았다. 실험 기간 동안 SAP의 혼합 비율에 따라 사용되는 관수량에는 상당한 차이가 있었다. 관수량은 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2% SAP 처리에서 각각 43.5, 37.2, 30.1, 29.4L이었다. 결론적으로 동일한 토 양수분조건하에서 SAP의 양에 따른 국화의 생육에는 차이가 없었으나, SAP를 통해 토양의 보수력을 향상시켜 사용되는 물의 양을 크게 줄일 수 있었다.

Repetitive or excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation causes oxidative stress-mediated skin photoaging through the overproduction of reactive oxygen species. Actinidia polygama is known as a medical plant used in oriental medicine for treating several diseases such as abdominal pain, stroke and rheumatoid arthritis. Recently, it was reported that A. polygama extract had anti-wrinkle and skin hydrating properties in ultraviolet B (UVB)-exposed hairless mice. However, the molecular biological mechanism of this extract on alleviating skin photoaging is still unknown. Therefore, we investigated the anti-photoaging effects of PB203, which is the powder of A. polygama extract, in the in vivo and in vitro photoaging models. First, PB203 showed 2,2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activities due to the presence of anti-oxidant components including flavonoids and polyphenols. In UVB-irradiated hairless mice, oral administration of PB203 (100 mg/ kg) significantly improved wrinkle formation, skin dehydration, elasticity and skin barrier function by decreasing the levels of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and increasing those of collagen I, filaggrin, involucrin and loricrin. Especially, the reduced production of p-p38, p-c-Jun and p-c-Fos by PB203 reversed the elevated levels of MMPs mediated by UVB exposure, resulting in the upregulation of collagen I expression. Consistent with these animal data, PB203 remarkably enhanced the mRNA expression of collagen I, filaggrin, involucrin and loricrin, while suppressed that of MMPs in UVB-irradiated HaCaT cells. And PB203 increased the wound recovery rate of cells by promoting their proliferation and migration. Moreover, PB203 significantly recovered the activity of superoxide dismutase inhibited by UVB in both mice and cells. In conclusion, PB203, which protects skin from UVB-induced photodamage by exerting antioxidant properties, can be considered to have sufficient potential as a functional ingredient or therapeutic agent improving skin photoaging and related skin symptoms.

As the uncertainty of technology development and market needs increases due to changes in the global business environment, the interest and demand for R&D activities of individual companies are increasing. To respond to these environmental changes, technology commercialization players are paying great attention to enhancing the qualitative competitiveness of R&D. In particular, R&D companies in the marine and fishery sector face many difficulties compared to other industries. For example, the R&D environment is barren, it is challenging to secure R&D human resources, and it is facing a somewhat more difficult environment compared to other sectors, such as the difficulty in maintaining R&D continuity due to the turnover rate of researchers. In this study, based on the empirical data and patent status of private companies closely related to the R&D technology status, big data analysis, and simulation analysis methods were used to identify the relative position of individual companies' R&D capabilities and industrial perspectives. In this study, based on industrial evidence and patent applications closely related to the R&D technology status, the R&D capabilities of individual companies were evaluated using extensive data analysis and simulation analysis methods, and a statistical test was performed to analyze if there were differences in capabilities from an industrial point of view. At this time, the industries to be analyzed were based on all sectors, the maritime industry, the fisheries industry, and the maritime industry integration sector. In conclusion, it was analyzed that there was a certain level of difference in the R&D capabilities of individual companies in each industry sector, Therefore when developing a future R&D capability system, it was confirmed that it was necessary to separate the population for each industry and establish a strategy.

Automatic question-answering is a classical problem in natural language processing, which aims at designing systems that can automatically answer a question, in the same way as human does. The need to query information content available in various formats including structured and unstructured data has become increasingly important. Thus, Question Answering Systems (QAS) are essential to satisfy this need. QAS aim at satisfying users who are looking to answer a specific question in natural language.Moreover, it is a representative of open domain QA systems, where the answer selection process leans on syntactic and semantic similarities between the question and the answering text snippets. Such approach is specifically oriented to languages with fine grained syntactic and morphologic features that help to guide the correct QA match. Furthermore, word and sentence embedding have become an essential part of any Deep-Learning-based natural language processing systems as they encode words and sentences in fixed-length dense vectors to drastically improve the processing of textual data. The paper will concentrate on incorporating the sentence embedding with its various techniques like Infersent, ElMo and BERT in the construction of Question Answering systems, and also it can be used in game play.

Interest in the use of semiconductor-based photocatalyst materials for the degradation of organic pollutants in a liquid phase has grown, due to their excellent performance and response to the light source. Herein, we fabricated a NiO-SiCTiO2 ternary structured photocatalyst which had reduced bandgap energy, with strong activation under UV-light irradiation. The synthesized samples were examined using XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM, DRS, EIS techniques and photocurrent measurement. The results confirmed that the two types of metal oxides were well bonded to the SiC fiber surface. The junction of the new photocatalyst exhibited a large number of photoexcited electrons and holes. The holes tended to oxidize the water and form a hydroxyl radical, which promoted the decomposition of methylene blue. The close contact between the 2D SiC fiber and metal oxide semiconductors expanded the scope of absorption wavelength, and enhanced the usability of the ternary photocatalyst for the degradation of methylene blue. Among three synthesized samples, the NiO-SiC-TiO2 showed the best photocatalytic effect, and was considered to have excellent photoelectron transfer due to the synergy effect between the metal oxide and SiC.