Light scattering enhancement is widely used to enhance the optical absorption efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells. In this work, we systematically analyzed the effects of spherical voids distributed as light-scattering centers in photoanode films made of an assembly of zinc oxide nanoparticles. Spherical voids in electrode films were formed using a sacrificial template of polystyrene (PS) spheres. The diameter and volume concentration of these spheres was varied to optimize the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells. The effects of film thickness on this efficiency was also examined. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was performed to study electron transport in the electrodes. The highest power conversion efficiency of 4.07 % was observed with 12μm film thickness. This relatively low optimum thickness of the electrode film is due to the enhanced light absorption caused by the light scattering centers of voids distributed in the film.

Renal dysplasia is a developmental disorder of the renal parenchyma involving anomalous differentiation. It is characterized by persistent metanephric ducts surrounded by primitive mesenchyme, fetal or immature glomeruli, fetal or immature tubules, interstitial fibrosis, and dysontogenic metaplasia involving tissues such as cartilage. Renal dysplasia has been rarely reported in rats. Here, we observed a small left kidney in a rat used in a short-term repeat toxicity study. The rat showed no clinical signs throughout the study. All parameters, including those reflecting kidney functions, were normal upon hematological examination and urinalysis. Grossly, the kidney was small (5 × 8 mm) and its surface appeared normal. Histological examination revealed that the cortex and medulla were poorly demarcated and contained immature/atrophic glomeruli, immature renal tubules, and mesenchymal cells. The cortex contained immature glomeruli, atrophic glomeruli with cystic dilatation of Bowman’s capsular space, and some atypical tubules. Primitive metanephric tubules in the medulla were larger in diameter than normal collecting ducts, lined by a tall columnar epithelium with pale cytoplasm and basal nucleus, and surrounded by loose mesenchymal cells. Occasional tubules contained pale eosinophilic homogenous material in the lumen. Thus, this was diagnosed as a case of renal dysplasia on the basis of histologic features and is the first reported case of renal dysplasia in Sprague Dawley rats.

Aluminum nitride(AlN) films were grown on the C-face and on the Si-face of (0001) silicon carbide(SiC) substrates using plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy(PA-MBE). This study was focused on first-stage growth manipulation prior to the start of AlN growth. Al pre-exposure, N-plasma pre-exposure, and simultaneous exposure(Al and N-plasma) procedures were used in the investigation. In addition, substrate polarity and, first-stage growth manipulation strongly affected the growth and properties of the AlN films. Al pre-exposure on the C-face and on the Si-face of SiC substrates prior to initiation of the AlN growth resulted in the formation of hexagonal hillocks on the surface. However, crack formation was observed on the C-face of SiC substrates without Al pre-exposure. X-ray rocking-curve measurements revealed that the AlN epilayers grown on the Si-face of the SiC showed relatively lower tilt and twist mosaic than did the epilayers grown on the C-face of the SiC. The results from the investigations reported in this paper indicate that the growth conditions on the Si-face of the SiC without Al pre-exposure was highly preferred to obtain the overall high-quality AlN epilayers formed using PA-MBE.

MYC (v-myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homologue) is a regulator gene that encodes for a nuclear phosphoprotein. Porcine MYC gene was mapped on chromosome SSC 4p13 and is associated with a variety of functions such as cell proliferation and cell growth. MYC expression is coupled to a multitude of physiological processes and is regulated by hormones, growth factors, cytokines, lymphokines, nutritional status, development and differentiation. MYC is also involved in myogenesis, muscle hyperplasia and adipogenesis. In this study, we investigated SNPs in MYC gene and their association with economic traits in Duroc, Landrace and Yorkshire populations. We detected a single point mutation in exon 3 of porcine MYC gene as a change of T to C at 906 base (amino acid position 302, nonsynomous mutation of alanine) in MYC-N domain. MYC mutation (T906C) was significantly associated with age at 90 kg in these breeds, signifying that this mutation can serve as a selection marker for growth traits in pigs.

We provide the first report on Stigmaeopsis miscanthi Saito, which was identified from Chinese silver grass Miscanthus sinensis on Ulleung Island in Korea. This species is one of the S. celarius complex, which involves several cryptic species. S. miscanthi has longer second dorsal propodosomal setae (P2), which is an important characteristic for species identification in the genus Stigmaeopsis. We determined nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) of S. miscanthi. The COI sequence differed by 0.6% between Korean and Japanese strains. The comparison between S. miscanthi and S. celarius showed that ITS2 and COI differed by 7.2% and 7.9%, respectively. In addition, species-specific primer sets of both species were designed to show the species classification within the genus.

Bean bug, Riptortus clavatus Thunberg (Heteroptera: Alydidae) causes serious damage to Leguminosae. Herein an entomopathogenic fungal virulence assay system against bean bugs was established to construct a fungal database which can be used in integrated pest management (IPM). First to obtain as many bean bugs as possible at the same stage, host plant-preference and developmental synchronization of bean bugs were investigated. In the preference assay, five pairs of adults were infested in a plastic cage, where a pot of green bean, pea or cowpea was previously placed. The highest fecundity and the fastest development of bean bug was observed in the green bean cage. Secondly, in the synchronization experiment, eggs were collected from the cage of adults in 1, 3, 5 and 7 days after oviposition and transferred to a fresh cage with green beans. From the every 4 days of survey, similar stages of bean bugs were found in the cages with the oviposition for 1 and 3 days, rather than the longer times of oviposition. A fungal bioassay against bean bugs was conducted using the bean bugs from the above insect rearing system. Ten Beauveria bassiana isolates were cultured on quarter-strength Sabouraud dextrose agar (¼SDA) for 7 days at 25°C. Ten 4th instar of nymphs were placed on a cultured plate for 1 hour and tranferred to a fresh moisturized plate with grains of green bean. ERL836 isolate treatment showed the highest virulence and fungal mycosis was observed on the bean bugs. In conclusion, these results can be useful to establish an entomopathogenic fungal database for IPM.

Activated carbon (AC) was synthesized from rice husks using the chemical activation method with KOH, NaOH, a combination of (NaOH + Na2CO3), and a combination of (KOH + K2CO3) as the chemical activating reagents. The activated carbon with the highest surface area (around 2000m2/g) and high porosity, which allows the absorption of a large number of ions, was applied as electrode material in electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs). The AC for EDLC electrodes is required to have a high surface area and an optimal pore size distribution; these are important to attain high specific capacitance of the EDLC electrodes. The electrodes were fabricated by compounding the rice husk activated carbons with super-P and mixed with polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) at a weight ratio of 83:10:7. AC electrodes and nickel foams were assembled with potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution as the electrolyte. Electrochemical measurements were carried out with a three electrode cell using 6 M KOH as electrolyte and Hg/HgO as the reference electrode. The specific capacitance strongly depends on the pore structure; the highest specific capacitance was 179 F/g, obtained for the AC with the highest specific surface area. Additionally, different activation times, levels of heating, and chemical reagents were used to compare and determine the optimal parameters for obtaining high surface area of the activated carbon.

This paper’s aim is to suggest the Expert System for analyzing relative combat power in ground operations. Since relative combat power analysis in terms of comparing combat power of friendly forces with one of the enemy can determine how the commander and staffs operate their unit afterwards, it requires fast and rational decision-making process. However, it has relied on manual method so far though Tactical Information Communications Network(TICN) into which numbers of applications can be loaded has been developed over a decade. The Expert System that will be built using EXSYS Corvid tool is expected to lessen error rate, provide faster decision- making, and reflect intangible combat power as well as tangible one by using an appropriate weights in analyzing relative combat power.

There is increasing interest in zirconia as a dental material due to its aesthetics, as well as the exceptionally high fracture toughness and high strength that are on offer when it is alloyed with certain oxides like yttria. In recent years, many solution based chemical synthesis methods have been reported for synthesis of zirconia, of which the sol-gel method is considered to be best. Here, we synthesize zirconia by a sol gel assisted precipitation method using either PEG or PVA as a stabilizing agent. Zirconia sol is first synthesized using the hydrothermal method. We used NaOH as the precipitating agent in this method because it is easy to remove from the final solution. Zirconium and yttrium salts are used as precursors and PEG or PVA are used as stabilizers to separate the metal ions. The resulting amorphous zirconia powder is calcined at 900˚C for 2 h to get crystallized zirconia. XRD analysis confirmed the partially stabilized zirconia synthesis in all the synthesized powders. SEM was taken to check the morphology of the powder synthesized using either PEG or PVA as a stabilizing agent and finally the transparency was calculated. The results confirmed that the powder synthesized with 10 % PVA as the stabilizing agent had highest percentage of transparency among all the synthesized powder.

Star clusters are superb astrophysical laboratories containing cospatial and coeval samples of stars with similar chemical composition. We initiate the Sejong Open cluster Survey (SOS) - a project dedicated to providing homogeneous photometry of a large number of open clusters in the SAAO Johnson-Cousins’ UBV I system. To achieve our main goal, we pay much attention to the observation of standard stars in order to reproduce the SAAO standard system. Many of our targets are relatively small sparse clusters that escaped previous observations. As clusters are considered building blocks of the Galactic disk, their physical properties such as the initial mass function, the pattern of mass segregation, etc. give valuable information on the formation and evolution of the Galactic disk. The spatial distribution of young open clusters will be used to revise the local spiral arm structure of the Galaxy. In addition, the homogeneous data can also be used to test stellar evolutionary theory, especially concerning rare massive stars. In this paper we present the target selection criteria, the observational strategy for accurate photometry, and the adopted calibrations for data analysis such as color-color relations, zero-age main sequence relations, Sp - MV relations, Sp - Teff relations, Sp - color relations, and Teff - BC relations. Finally we provide some data analysis such as the determination of the reddening law, the membership selection criteria, and distance determination.