For application in nuclear decommissioning, underwater laser cutting studies were conducted on thick stainless-steel plates for various cutting directions using a 6 kW fiber laser. For cutting along the horizontal direction with horizontal laser irradiation, the maximum cutting speed was 110 mm∙min−1 for a 48 mm thick stainless-steel plate. For cutting along the vertical direction with horizontal laser irradiation, a maximum speed of 120 mm∙min−1 was obtained for the same thickness, which confirmed that the cutting performance was similar but slightly better. Moreover, when cutting with vertically downward laser irradiation, the maximum cutting speed was 120 mm∙min−1 for a plate of the same thickness. Thus, the cutting performance for vertical irradiation was nearly identical to that for horizontal irradiation. In conclusion, it was possible to cut thick stainless-steel plates regardless of the laser irradiation and cutting directions, although the assist gas rose up due to buoyancy. These observations are expected to benefit laser cutting procedures during the actual dismantling of nuclear facilities.

The increase in temperature due to climate warming is predicted to affect crop yields in the future. Until now, various types of OTC (open top chamber) that simulate the future climate condition have been developed and used to study the effect of temperature increase due to global warming on maize growth. However, in most OTCs, high equipment and maintenance costs were required to artificially increase the temperature. This study was carried to develop a cost-effective and simple OTC suitable for climate warming experiments for forage maize. Three octagonal OTCs with a height of 3.5 m × a diameter of 4.08 m and a partially covered top were constructed. The lower part of OTC covered film was opened at a height of 26 cm (OTC-26), 12 cm (OTC-12) from the ground surface, or not opened (0 cm, OTC-0). Mean air temperatures during the daytime on a sunny day in OTC-0, OTC-12 and OTC-26 increased to 3.23℃, 1.33℃, and 0.89℃, respectively, compared to the ambient control plot. For a pilot test, forage maize, ‘Gwangpyeongok’ was grown at OTCs and ambient control plots. As a result, in the late maize vegetative growth phase (July 30), the plant height was increased more than 45% higher than the ambient control plot in all OTC plots, and the stem diameter also increased in all OTC plots. These results indicate that it is possible to set the temperature inside the OTC by adjusting the opening height of the lower end of the OTC, and it can be applied to study the response of forage maize to elevated temperature. An OTC, with its advantages of energy free, low maintenance cost, and simple temperature setting, will be helpful in studying maize growth responsiveness to climate warming in the future.

The present study is designed to investigate the hypolipidemic effect of the hot-water extract from the leaves of Dendropanax morbifera L. (DMWE) in hyperlipidemic rats. Thirty male 5-week-old rats were grouped as follows: Normal control (NC) given distilled water; hyperlipidemic control (HC) administered with distilled water; drug treatment (DT) orally administered with atorvastatin (10 mg/kg body weight (BW)); DMWE-treated groups (DM-50, DM-100 and DM-200) treated with DMWE 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg BW, respectively. All groups (except for NC) were fed a high-fat diet during the experiment. After 4 weeks of administration, the BW of all groups treated with DMWEs significantly increased compared to that of HC (p<0.05) and showed no significant difference compared to that of NC. In addition, serum total cholesterol levels in all groups treated with DMWEs were meaningfully decreased, compared to that in HC (p<0.05). In serum triglyceride (TG) and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels, both DM-100 and DM-200 considerably decreased compared to HC (p<0.05), and no significant differences in TG levels were between DM-100 and DM-200. In high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels, DM-200 was statistically different compared to HC, and there were no significant differences between DM-100, DM-200 and DT. Furthermore, aspartate transaminase and alanine aminotransferase concentrations of DM-100 and DM-200 were significantly decreased compared to those of HC (p<0.05). From results portrayed above, DMWE at the concentration of 100 mg/kg BW has been identified to be effective in the treatment of hyperlipidemic rats.

The objectives of this study were: (1) to identify differences in consumer attitudes and intentions to recycle fashion products using three types of recycling (including resale, reform, and donation), and (2) to examine the moderating effects of consumer prosocialness on the relationships between attitude and intention for each type of fashion product recycling. Men and women aged 20 years and over were recruited from a marketing research firm panel. Participants completed an online questionnaire incorporating measures for attitudes and intentions to resale, reform, and donate fashion products, prosocialness, frequency of purchasing fashion products, monthly amount of spending on fashion products, and demographic information. Data from 224 participants were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and PROCESS macro. The results demonstrated that consumers had significantly different attitudes and intentions depending on type of fashion product recycling. Consumers had more positive attitudes toward donation compared to resale and reform types of recycling. Consumer intentions toward resale and donation were significantly higher than their intention to reform. Furthermore, this study confirmed that the attitude-intention gap in fashion product recycling can be explained by individual prosocialness. The moderating effects of prosocialness on the associations between attitude and intention to recycle were significant. The implications of increasing consumers’ behavior intention to recycle fashion products was discussed and future research suggestions are provided.

Recently the meaning of the road name address is expended as an information through the revision of the Road Name Address Act. As this revision, the address of things (AoT) become more important indicating the possibility for the expansion to the related business. However, recent study about AoT does not concern how the current priority system works from the first research. In this study, we analyze perception about addressable object between AoT experts and public using AHP analysis. We structured the importance of addressable objects as two categories; urgency and value creation. The necessity in emergency or daily, accessibility and welfare conform the urgency index. Meanwhile, public value creation in public domain or profitability in the business area and economics conform value creation index. We conducted survey for total of 89 of experts and public. The results of this study indicate the relative importance of AoT measured by experts and public. Generally, public tend to concern more about accessibility conforming the urgency index than experts. Moreover, the public WiFi and the sports complex scored the high priority among the remain addressable objects, in respect of the urgency and the value creation. This result could be implemented for the activation of the smart city industry base on the geospatial information including AoT.

Under the stressed condition, a complex feedback mechanism for stress is activated to maintain homeostasis of the body and secretes several stress hormones. But these stress hormones impair synthesis and secretion of the reproductive hormones, followed by suppression of ovarian function. Cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) plays a major role in metabolizing exogenous substances and endogenous hormones, and its expression is recently identified at not only the liver but also several organs with respect to the pancreas, lung and ovary. Although the expression of CYP1A2 can be also affected by several factors, understanding for the changed pattern of the ovarian CYP1A2 expression upon stress induction is still limited. Therefore, CYP1A2 expression in the ovaries from immobilization stress-induced rats were assessed in the present study. The stress-induced rats in the present study exhibited the physiological changes in terms of increased stress hormone level and decreased body weight gains. Under immunohistological observation, the ovarian CYP1A2 expression in both control and the stressed ovary was localized in the antral to pre-ovulatory follicles. However, its expression level was significantly (p < 0.01) higher in the stress-induced group than control group. In addition, stress-induced group presented more abundant CYP1A2-positive follicles (%) than control group. Since expression of the ovarian CYP1A2 was highly related with follicle atresia, increased expression of CYP1A2 in the stressed ovary might be associated with changes of the ovarian follicular dynamics due to stress induction. We hope that these findings have important implications in the fields of the reproductive biology.