Colloidal stability is one of crucial factors for many applications of nanodiamond. Despite recent development, nanodiamonds available on the market often exhibit a high impurity content, wide size distribution of aggregates and low resistance to sedimentation. In the current study, four commercial nanodiamond powders synthesized by detonation synthesis were surface modified and then separated with respect to the size into six fractions by centrifugation. The fractions were evaluated by zeta potential, particle size distribution and elemental composition. The results showed that the modified nanodiamonds form stable colloidal suspensions without sedimentation for a long time.

Embryos derived from pig oocytes matured in mSOF are able to develop to blastocysts after IVF. Experiment 1 evaluated the effects of two maturation media (TCM-199 vs mSOF) on maturation rate, fertilization parameters, including penetration, polyspermy, male pronuclear formation, and the mean number of sperm penetrated per oocyte. Experiment 2 and Experiments 3 examined the effects of two maturation media on zona pellucida solubility and cortical granule distribution by transmissible electron microscopy, respectively. Experiment 4 assessed the effects of two maturation media on the in vitro embryo cleavage rate and development to blastocyst. Lastly, experiment 5 examined the cell number of blastocyst. An effect of media (P<0.05) was detected for mSOF on the mean number of sperm per oocyte. In TCM group, zona digestion time (196.515.5 vs 131.620.1 before IVF, 397.530.3s vs 185.316.4s after IVF, p<0.05) was higher in TCM-199 group. No significant effects of media was observed on cortical granule distribution between two groups by TEM. An effect (P<0.05) was observed on embryo development to blastocyst (16% vs 8%) but not on cleavage rates. No significant effects of media was observed on total cell number of blastocyst. We found that the high mean number of sperm penetrated per oocyte and the weaker zona pellucida on the basis of the digestion time was shown in pig oocytes matured in mSOF, however, porcine oocyte maturation with supplemented synthetic oviduct fluid medium (mSOF) resulted in blastocyst cell numbers comparable to those observed with Tissue Culture Medium 199.

LaMnO3, and gel films were deposited by spin-coating technique on scandium-doped zirconia (YSZ) substrate using the precursor solution prepared from , or ,2-methoxyethanol, and polyethylene glycol. By heat-treating the gel films, the electrochemical cells, were fabricated. The effect of polyethylene glycol on the microstructure evolution of and thin films was investigated, and NOx decomposition characteristics of the electrochemical cells were investigated at to . By applying a direct current to the electrochemical cell, good NOx conversion rate could be obtained relatively at low current value even if excess oxygen is included in the reaction gas mixture.

From the evaluation of physical properties such as springiness, gumminess, adhesiveness, chewiness and hardness by the texture analyzer, vegetable soybean lines with green seed-coat were best as compared with those with black, brown, mixed, and yellow seed-coats. A panel test evaluated on the basis of taste, sweetness, chewiness, and total scores also indicated that soybean lines with green seed-coat were the best. The total scores of panel test was decreased in the order of green > yellow> black> brown seed-coat colored soybean. The mean value of sucrose content obtained by HPLC analysis was highest in black seed-coat colored soybean, and followed by green, yellow, and brown soybeans. The highest sucrose content (8.22%) was observed in 180362, a soybean line with green seed-coat. The full-season type soybeans showed much higher sucrose content than summer types which are mainly cultivated on farmer's fields for vegetable purposes. The final 13 lines selected from 300 colored soybeans showed nearly the same panel scores as Miwongreen. However, these lines had a great deal of variation in sucrose content, and much higher readings in texture analysis than Miwongreen, especially in chewiness and hardness which were the most important properties in vegetable soybeans.