Numerous studies have reported that good adhesion and fluorination of carbon materials in a fluoropolymer matrix enhance their electrical and mechanical properties. However, a composite reinforced with oxyfluorinated graphite has not been reported for improving mechanical properties. This paper discusses the fabrication of conductive fluorinated ethylene–propylene (FEP)/oxyfluorinated graphite (f-graphite) composite bipolar plates (BPs) via compression molding. To investigate the effects of fluorinating graphite, graphite with a large particle size of 500 μm was mixed with FEP powder with a small particle size of 8 μm through ball milling. The FEP/graphite composites exhibited high anisotropic electrical conductivity with the in-plane conductivity much higher than the through-plane conductivity because of the planar orientation of the graphite sheets. Therefore, the mechanical properties of the composites such as flexural strength tended to deteriorate with increasing graphite content. In particular, the FEP/f-graphite composites exhibited excellent flexural strength of 12 MPa, much higher than that of FEP/graphite composites at 9 MPa with a graphite content of 80 wt%. The interfacial interaction between FEP and f-graphite led to improved physical compatibilization, which contributed to enhance the mechanical properties of these composites. Our results are a step toward developing BPs for use in high-temperature fuel cells and heat-sink components.

Voice user interface has become a commercially viable and extensive interaction mechanism with the development of voice assistants. Despite the popularity of voice assistants, the academic community does not utterly understand about what, when, and how users chat with them. Chatting with a voice assistant is crucial as it defines how a user will seek the help of the assistant in the future. This study aims to cover the essence and construct of conversational AI, to develop a classification method to deal with user utterances, and, most importantly, to understand about what, when, and how Chinese users chat with voice assistants. We collected user utterances from the real conventional database of a commercial voice assistant, NetEase Sing in China. We also identified different utterance categories on the basis of previous studies and real usage conditions and annotated the utterances with 17 labels. Furthermore, we found that the three top reasons for the usage of voice assistants in China are the following: (1) greeting, (2) function, and (3) music. Chinese users like to interact with voice assistants at night from 7 PM to 10 PM, and they are polite toward the assistants. The whole percentage of negative feedback utterances is less than 6%, which is considerably low. These findings appear to be useful in voice interaction designs for intelligent hardware.

The name of the University. While there is a close relationship between the environment and peace, this should be reflected in the establishment of an institute or program rather that in the name of the University which should be, as originally conceived, the World Environment University. The credibility of the University will depend on the involvement in it from the beginning of highly influential leaders of the world environment movement. There is no better way of ensuring this than to obtain the formal involvement of IUCN which has in its membership most of the leading nongovernmental and governmental organizations of the environment and conservation movement

The CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) is a G protein-coupled receptor that regulates chemotaxis and effector functions of immune cells. It also serves as the major co-receptor for the entry of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Recently, CCR5 inhibitors have been developed and used for the treatment or prevention of HIV infections. Additionally, it has been identified that CCR5 controls bone homeostasis by regulating osteoclastogenesis and the communication between osteoblasts and osteoclasts. However, the effects of CCR5 inhibition on bone tissue in elderly patients are unknown. This study aimed to examine the bone phenotype of aged CCR5 knockout (KO) mice. Femoral and tibial bones were isolated from 12-month and 18-month old wild-type (WT) and CCR5 KO mice, and microcomputed tomography and histology analyses were performed. Twelve-month-old CCR5 KO mice exhibited a decreased trabecular bone mass and cortical bone thickness in both femoral and tibial bones compared with agematched WT mice. Eighteen-month-old mice also showed a decreased trabecular bone mass in femurs compared with control WT mice, but not in tibial bones. Unlike in 12-month-old mice, the cortical margin of femurs and tibias in 18-month-old mice were rough, likely because they were aggravated by the deficiency of CCR5. Overall, our data suggest that the deficiency of CCR5 with aging can cause severe bone loss. When CCR5 inhibitors or CCR5 inactivating technologies are used in elderly patients, a preventive strategy for bone loss should be considered.

This experiment was conducted to breed a very early maturing variety of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) in Grassland and Forage Crops Division, National Institute of Animal Science, RDA, Cheonan 2015-2017. The new variety of Italian ryegrass, ‘Green call 2ho’ is a diploid variety with green in leaf color and has semi-erect growth habit in late autumn and erect growth habit in early spring, ‘Green call 2ho’ was in heading date as a early-maturing variety April 24. Also ‘Green call 2ho’ was narrower by 2 mm in flag leaf width, longer by 2.5 cm in flag leaf length and shorter by 3 cm in plant height than those of the control variety, ‘Florida 80’, respectively. ‘Green call 2ho’ was also thicker by 0.33 mm in stem thickness and strong in winter hardness. Dry matter (DM) yield (11,688 kg/ha) of ‘Green call 2ho’ was 7% higher than that of ‘Florida 80’. Total digestible nutrient (TDN), crude protein (CP) and relative feed value (RFV) of ‘Green call 2ho’ were 61.3 %, 9.8 % and 98.2, respectively which are 2.6, 0.6, and 8.4 % higher, respectively than those of ‘Florida 80’, respectively. Acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) of ‘Green call 2ho’ were 34.9 and 58.5 % which are 3.3 and 2.7 % lower than those of ‘Florida 80’, respectively.

To enhance the thermal properties of epoxy composites, expanded graphite (EG) was oxyfluorinated and embedded into epoxy resin as a reinforcement. The maximum thermal conductivity was obtained for epoxy composites with oxyfluorinated EG, representing a 62% increase compared to that of neat epoxy. Additionally, the glass transition temperature (Tg) and integral procedural decomposition temperature of epoxy composites with oxyfluorinated EG show the increase of 6% (4.4 °C) and 106% (264 °C), respectively, which indicated the improvement in thermal stability. These results can be attributed to the interfacial interaction between epoxy and oxyfluorinated EG, which formed strong interfacial interactions between the epoxy resin and EG due to the presence of oxygen- and fluorine-containing functional groups in oxyfluorinated EG.

Leuconostoc spp. are generally utilized as kimchi starters, because these strains are expected to have beneficial effects on kimchi fermentation, including improvement of sensory characteristics. Here, we developed a detection method for verifying the presence of the kimchi starter Leuconostoc mesenteroides WiKim33, which is used for control of kimchi fermentation. A primer set for multiplex polymerase chain reaction was designed based on the nucleotide sequence of the plasmids in strain WiKim33, and their specificity was validated against 45 different strains of Leuconostoc spp. and 30 other strains. Furthermore, the starter strain consistently tested positive, regardless of the presence of other bacterial species in starter kimchi during the fermentation period. Our findings showed that application of a strain-specific primer set for strain WiKim33 presented a rapid, sensitive, and specific method for detection of this kimchi starter strain during natural kimchi fermentation.

고온기 화색발현이 우수하고 연중생산이 가능한 수출용 스프레이국화 신품종을 육성하기 위하여 충남농업기술원 화훼 연구소에서 2010년 분홍색의 모본 ‘Borami’를 방임수분하였다. 2011년에 종자를 파종하였고, 이중 화형과 화색이 우수한 개체를 선발하여 ‘SP11-148-01’로 계통명을 부여하였다. 2011년부터 2013년까지 주년 생산성을 위해 전조, 자연, 차광재배로 특성을 각각 검정하였고, 생육 및 개화특성은 화형과 화색이 비슷한 자주색 스프레이국화인 ‘Kingfisher’를 대조품종으로 조사하였으며, 2013년 ‘Yes Ruby’로 품종등록 출원하였다. ‘Yes Ruby’는 자주색의 설상화와 연녹색의 통상화로 가을 작형 개화기는 10월 24일로, ‘Kingfisher’의 10월 29일에 비해 빨랐다. ‘Yes Ruby’의 초장과 줄기굵기는 각각 94.9cm와 7.7mm로 ‘Kingfisher’의 89.2cm와 6.4mm보다 컸다. ‘Yes Ruby’의 꽃 직경은 6.2cm로 ‘Kingfisher’의 5.0cm보다 컸으며, 꽃잎수도 ‘Yes Ruby’가 25.7개로 ‘Kingfisher’의 23.3개보다 많았다. 착화수는 두 품종 모두 비슷하였으며, 흰녹병 저항성은 ‘Yes Ruby’가 2단계, ‘Kingfisher’는 3단계의 감염 정도를 나타내어 흰녹병에 대한 저항성이 높은 것으로 나타났다. 재배상 유의사항은 ‘Yes Ruby’는 겨울철 균일한 개화가 이뤄지지 않아 겨울철 야간온도를 18℃ 이상으로 관리해줌으로써 균일개화를 유도할 수 있다. 또한 생장억제제인 Daminozide을 처리함으로써 설상화수를 늘려 볼륨감 높은 꽃봉오리를 형성할 수 있어 고온기에도 화색발현이 우수하고 연중생산이 가능하여 안정적 수출을 통한 농가소득 증대에 기여할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.

Inflammation is an important protective response mechanism that occurs against microbial invasion or injury. However, excessive inflammation may lead to cause of morbidity and mortality in diseases. The activated macrophages plays a vital role in inflammatory response by stimulation of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). This activation further damages the host by inducing certain pro-inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide (NO), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin- 6 (IL-6), TNF-α, inducible nitrous oxide (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase (COX-2). Flavonoids are bioactive compounds with potential effects as anti-cancer, anti-inflammation, anti-viral and anti-bacterial activities. Polymethoxyflavones (PMFs) are unique to citrus plants which are of specific interest owing to their biological effects that includes lipoprotein metabolism and anti-inflammatory activity. Sinensetin is one of the PMFs having five methoxy groups on the basic benzo-γ-pyrone skeleton with a carbonyl group at the C4 position. Sinensetin have been known for exerting various pharmacological activities including anti-angiogenesis, anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory activities. However, there are no studies focused on the anti-inflammatory effects of sinensetin on skeletal muscle cells. In the present study, we investigated the antiinflammatory effect of flavonoids isolated from Sinensetin on the production of pro-inflammatory mediators mediated by nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) by inhibition of signal transduction in LPS - induced L6 skeletal muscle cells.