Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is an essential step at an anode in electrochemical water-splitting process and requires efficient electrocatalysts to reduce overpotentials. Although precious metal-based materials, such as RuO2, IrO2 and their hybrids with other components, performed excellently as OER electrocatalysts, their high cost has limited practical applications. Consequently, earth-abundant metal components including Fe, Co, and Ni have been investigated as alternatives. In this work, the hybridization of Ni-containing species with conductive carbon-based materials was used to prevent aggregation of active species and improve electrochemical catalytic performance. A new hybrid material composed of NiO nanoparticles and N-doped carbon materials was prepared. The NiO particles with a narrow size distribution were well dispersed on the surface of carbon-based materials. The hybrid showed improved electrocatalytic performance for OER than single components of NiO and N-doped carbon materials.

농촌진흥청 국립원예특작과학원에서는 2017년에 절화 수명이 길고 수량이 많은 연한 핑크색의 스프레이 장미 ‘Pink Shine’ 을 육성하였다. 모본은 ‘Fire Flash’로 붉은 복색의 스프레이 장미이며, 부본은 ‘Pink Charm’으로 핑크색이며 흰가루병에 강하다. 이 두 품종을 2012년 인공교배하여 이듬해인 2013년 1월에 파종, 9cm 포트 묘에 정식하여 관능 평가 실시 후 도태시켜 39개체 의 실생을 얻었다. 이후 화형, 화색, 꽃잎 수, 절화수량, 병 저항성 등을 고려하여 2015년까지 5개체를 선발하여 유사 품종인 ‘Missha’를 대조로 하여 2017년까지 3차에 걸친 특성 검정을 실시하였다. 그 결과 가장 우수한 ‘원교 D1-325’를 최종선발하여 ‘Pink Shine’으로 명명 후 2018년 3월 22일 품종보호출원(제 2018-212호)하여 2019년 6월 21일에 품종보호권(제7786호)이 등록되었다. 화색은 연한 핑크색(RHS, R36D)이며 잎의 색은 녹색(RHS, G137A)으로 대조 품종 ‘Missha’와 동일하였다. 꽃잎 수는 67.8개, 화폭 5.4cm, 화고 3.2cm로 ‘Missha’보다 컸으며 평방미터당 연간 절화수량은 131본, 절화수명은 15.3일로 ‘Missha’ 보다 우수하였다.

Influenza A virus (IAV) causes respiratory disease in birds and mammals, including pigs and humans. Infection by IAV in pigs increases not only economic losses in the swine industry but also the emergence of novel IAV variants via gene reassortment, which is important due to the susceptibility of both birds and humans to IAV. This study provides serological data obtained during a study to detect IAV infections in pigs in the Republic of Korea during 2018 and 2019. A total of 1,559 samples were collected from 74 domestic pig farms. Hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays were performed using the A/Swine/Korea/25-13(H1N1), A/Swine/Korea/E102 (H1N2), and A/Swine/Korea/Cy10/2007 (H3N2) viruses as antigens. The HI assay results showed that 266 of the 1,559 samples were seropositive (17.0%). Among these, H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2 comprised 7.3% (114), 6.0% (93), and 8.8% (137) of the 1,559 samples, respectively. Co-infections of H1N1/H1N2, H1N1/H3N2, H1N2/H3N2 and H1N1/H1N2/H3N2 were observed in 2.1% (31), 1.5% (23), 1.5% (24), and 0.8% (13) of the 1,559 samples, respectively. Interestingly, IAV infections were detected in all nine provinces of the country.

Colon cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors, but there are still a few validated biomarkers of colon cancer. Exosome-mediated microRNAs (miRNAs) have been recognized as potential biomarkers in cancers, and miRNAs can regulate a variety of genes. Recently, Fusobacterium nucleatum was discovered in the tissues of human colon cancer patients. Its role in colon cancer was highlighted. F. nucleatum may contribute to the progression of colon cancer through the mechanism of exosome-mediated miRNAs transfer. However, the exosomal miRNAs regulation mechanism by F. nucleatum in colon cancer is not well known. Thus, we performed next-generation sequencing to investigate the overall pattern of exosomal miRNAs expression in the colon cancer cell culture supernatant. We have confirmed the alterations of various exosomal miRNAs. In addition, to investigate the function of exosomal miRNAs, a Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis was performed on the target genes of changed miRNAs. Potential target genes were associated with a variety of signaling pathways, and one of these pathways was related to colorectal cancer. These findings suggested that F. nucleatum can alter exosomal miRNAs released from colorectal cancer cells. Furthermore, exosomal miRNAs altered by F. nucleatum could be potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and therapy of colon cancer.

The accuracy of satellite-observed sea surface salinity (SSS) was evaluated in comparison with in-situ salinity measurements from ARGO floats and buoys in the seas around the Korean Peninsula, the northwest Pacific, and the global ocean. Differences in satellite SSS and in-situ measurements (SSS errors) indicated characteristic dependences on geolocation, sea surface temperature (SST), and other oceanic and atmospheric conditions. Overall, the root-mean-square (rms) errors of non-averaged SMOS SSSs ranged from approximately 0.8-1.08 psu for each in-situ salinity dataset consisting of ARGO measurements and non-ARGO data from CTD and buoy measurements in both local seas and the ocean. All SMOS SSSs exhibited characteristic negative bias errors at a range of −0.50- −0.10 psu in the global ocean and the northwest Pacific, respectively. Both rms and bias errors increased to 1.07 psu and −0.17 psu, respectively, in the East Sea. An analysis of the SSS errors indicated dependence on the latitude, SST, and wind speed. The differences of SMOS-derived SSSs from in-situ salinity data tended to be amplified at high latitudes (40-60°N) and high sea water salinity. Wind speeds contributed to the underestimation of SMOS salinity with negative bias compared with in-situ salinity measurements. Continuous and extensive validation of satellite-observed salinity in the local seas around Korea should be further investigated for proper use.

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) has been developing a next-generation coronagraph (NGC) in cooperation with NASA to measure the coronal electron density, temperature, and speed simultaneously, using four different optical filters around 400 nm. KASI organized an expedition to demonstrate the coronagraph measurement scheme and the instrumental technology during the 2017 total solar eclipse (TSE) across the USA. The observation site was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA. We built an eclipse observation system, the Diagnostic Coronal Experiment (DICE), composed of two identical telescopes to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. The observation was conducted at four wavelengths and three linear polarization directions in the limited total eclipse time of about 140 seconds. We successfully obtained polarization data for the corona but we were not able to obtain information on the coronal electron temperature and speed due to the low signal-to-noise ratio of the optical system and strong emission from prominences located at the western limb. In this study, we report the development of DICE and the observation results from the eclipse expedition. TSE observation and analysis with our self-developed instrument showed that a coronagraph needs to be designed carefully to achieve its scientific purpose. We gained valuable experience for future follow-up NASA-KASI joint missions: the Balloon-borne Investigation of the Temperature and Speed of Electrons in the Corona (BITSE) and the COronal Diagnostic EXperiment (CODEX).

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli는 신생 및 이유기 돼지 설사의 주요 원인체로서 전세계적으로 양돈산업에 큰 경제적 손실을 끼치고 있다. 그러나 현재 국내에는 이러한 E. coli가 보유하는 다양한 병원성유전자의 분포 및 특성에 대한 정보가 부족한 실정이다. 이에 본 연구에서는 2013년부터 2016년까지 국내 163개 양돈농장에서 이유기 설사증 개체로부터 면봉스왑 샘플을 채취하여 동일 농장의 개체일 경우 5개에서 10개 정도를 혼합한 후, MacConkey agar에 배양하여 최종 API 32E system을 통하여 동정하였다. 분리된 모든 균주에 대해서 3가지의 다른 multiplex PCR을 수행하여 총 13종의 병원성유전자의 분포를 확인하였다. 이를 통하여 총 172개의 최소 한가지 이상의 병원성 유전자를 가지는 E. coli 균주를 확인하였고, 그 결과 병원성 유전자의 분포는 (1) fimbrial adhesins (43.0%): F4 (16.9%), F5 (4.1%), F6 (1.7%), F18 (21.5%), and F41 (3.5%); (2) toxins (90.1%): LT (19.2%), STa (20.9%), STb (25.6%), Stx2e (15.1%), EAST1 (48.3%); and (3) nonfimbrial adhesin (19.6%): EAE (14.0%), AIDA-1 (11.6%) and PAA (8.7%)로 나타났다. 결론적으로 본 연구결과는 국내 양돈농장의 이유기 설사증에 관연하는 E. coli는 다양한 종류의 병원성 유전자를 가지고 있으며 그러한 병원성 유전자의 조합도 매우 다양하게 분포하고 있음을 나타낸다.

We present the results of near-infrared imaging observations of the galaxy overdensity around the z = 1.44 radio-loud active galactic nucleus (AGN) 6CE1100+3505, which was carried out with the purpose of sampling the redshifted Hα emission from the actively star-forming galaxies that could constitute the overdensity. The existence of the structure around this AGN was spectroscopically confirmed by previous grism observations which are however limited to the central region. Using the CH4Off narrow/medium-band and H broad band filters in the Wide Infrared Camera (WIRCam) on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), we constructed a sample of objects that show a flux excess in the CH4Off band due to line emission. The emission line flux is ∼ 4.9 × 10−16 erg s−1 cm−2 , corresponding to a star formation rate (SFR) of ∼ 50 M⊙ yr−1 for galaxies at redshifts z ∼ 1.4. None of the galaxies with medium-band flux excess is located within 1 Mpc from the central AGN, and there is no evidence that the selected galaxies are associated with the proposed cluster. Along with the star formation quenching near the center that was found from the previous grism observations, the lack of extreme starbursts in the structure suggests that at z ∼ 1.4, overdense regions are no longer favorable locations for vigorous star formation.