Fueled by international efforts towards AI standardization, including those by the European Commission, the United States, and international organizations, this study introduces a AI-driven framework for analyzing advancements in drone technology. Utilizing project data retrieved from the NTIS DB via the “drone” keyword, the framework employs a diverse toolkit of supervised learning methods (Keras MLP, XGboost, LightGBM, and CatBoost) enhanced by BERTopic (natural language analysis tool). This multifaceted approach ensures both comprehensive data quality evaluation and in-depth structural analysis of documents. Furthermore, a 6T-based classification method refines non-applicable data for year-on-year AI analysis, demonstrably improving accuracy as measured by accuracy metric. Utilizing AI’s power, including GPT-4, this research unveils year-on-year trends in emerging keywords and employs them to generate detailed summaries, enabling efficient processing of large text datasets and offering an AI analysis system applicable to policy domains. Notably, this study not only advances methodologies aligned with AI Act standards but also lays the groundwork for responsible AI implementation through analysis of government research and development investments.

Governments around the world are enacting laws mandating explainable traceability when using AI(Artificial Intelligence) to solve real-world problems. HAI(Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence) is an approach that induces human decision-making through Human-AI collaboration. This research presents a case study that implements the Human-AI collaboration to achieve explainable traceability in governmental data analysis. The Human-AI collaboration explored in this study performs AI inferences for generating labels, followed by AI interpretation to make results more explainable and traceable. The study utilized an example dataset from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to reproduce the Human-AI collaboration process used in actual policy-making, in which the Ministry of Science and ICT utilized R&D PIE(R&D Platform for Investment and Evaluation) to build a government investment portfolio.

Explainable AI (XAI) is an approach that leverages artificial intelligence to support human decision-making. Recently, governments of several countries including Korea are attempting objective evidence-based analyses of R&D investments with returns by analyzing quantitative data. Over the past decade, governments have invested in relevant researches, allowing government officials to gain insights to help them evaluate past performances and discuss future policy directions. Compared to the size that has not been used yet, the utilization of the text information (accumulated in national DBs) so far is low level. The current study utilizes a text mining strategy for monitoring innovations along with a case study of smart-farms in the Honam region.

The safe, efficient and cost-effective decommissioning and dismantling of radioactive facilities requires the accurate characterization of the radionuclide activities and dose rate environment. And it is critical across many nuclear industries to identify and locate sources of radiation accurately and quickly. One of the more challenging aspects of dealing with radiation is that you cannot see it directly, which can result in potential exposure when working in those environments. Generally, semiconductor detectors have better energy resolution than scintillation detectors, but the maximum achievable count rates are limited by long pulse signals. Whereas some high pure germanium detectors have been developed to operate at high count rates, and these HPGe detectors could obtain gamma-ray spectra at high count rates exceeding 1 Mcps. However, HPGe detectors require cooling devices to reduce the leak currents, which becomes disadvantageous when developing portable radiation detectors. Furthermore, chemicalcompound semiconductor detectors made of cadmium telluride and cadmium zinc telluride are popular, because they have good energy resolution and are available at room temperature. However, CdTe and CZT detectors develop irradiation-induced defects under intense gamma-ray fields. In this Review, we start with the fundamentals of gamma rays detection and review the recent developments in scintillators gamma-ray detectors. The key factors affecting the detector performance are summarized. We also give an outlook on the field, with emphasis on the challenges to be overcome.

Climate change effects are particularly apparent in many cool-season grasslands in South Korea. Moreover, the probability of climate extremes has intensified and is expected to increase further. In this study, we performed climate change vulnerability assessments in cool-season grasslands based on the analytic hierarchy process method to contribute toward effective decision-making to help reduce grassland damage caused by climate change and extreme weather conditions. In the analytic hierarchy process analysis, vulnerability was found to be influenced in the order of climate exposure (0.575), adaptive capacity (0.283), and sensitivity (0.141). The climate exposure rating value was low in Jeju-do Province and high in Daegu (0.36–0.39) and Incheon (0.33–0.5). The adaptive capacity index showed that grassland compatibility (0.616) is more important than other indicators. The adaptation index of Jeollanam-do Province was higher than that of other regions and relatively low in Gangwon-do Province. In terms of sensitivity, grassland area and unused grassland area were found to affect sensitivity the most with index values of 0.487 and 0.513, respectively. The grassland area rating value was low in Jeju-do and Gangwon-do Province, which had large grassland areas. In terms of vulnerability, that of Jeju-do Province was lower and of Gyeongsangbuk-do Province higher than of other regions. These results suggest that integrating the three aspects of vulnerability (climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity) may offer comprehensive and spatially explicit adaptation plans to reduce the impacts of climate change on the cool-season grasslands of South Korea.

We aimed to predict the Italian ryegrass (IRG) productivity change of introduced and domestic varieties based on climate factors and identify suitable areas for IRG cultivation using the RCP 8.5 scenario. The minimum mean air temperature in January showed the highest correlation with productivity. The ratio of possible and low productivity areas was high in Gangwondo, and the ratio of suitable and best suitable areas was relatively high in the central and southern regions in the past 30 years. The change in the IRG cultivation area was found to be 26.9% in the best suitable area between 1981–2010 but increased significantly to 88.9% between 2090s. In the IRG suitability comparison classes between domestic and introduced cultivars, the ratio of suitable and best suitable areas was relatively high in the domestic varieties during the past 30 years. However, there is almost no difference between the IRG domestic and introduced varieties in the IRG suitability classes after the 2050s. These results can predict changes in the IRG suitability classes between domestic and introduced cultivars according to the climate change scenario, but there are limitations in accurately predicting the productivity of IRG because the results may vary depending on other environmental factors.

초음파 모기 기피 장치 ‘모스 윈드솔루션(Mos windsolution)’의 성능을 실내에서 평가하였다. 해당 제품은 120Hz~1.2MHz 사이의 주파수를 가진 초음파를 발생시켜 모기가 기피하도록 유도하는 기능을 갖고 있다. 기기의 성능 평가를 위하여 선택적 실험과 비선택적 실험을 실시하였다. 선택적 실험은 2m의 PVC 파이프 양 끝에 15cm cube 형태의 실험 케이지를 연결하고, 그 옆면에 쥐를 한 마리씩 구속하였다. 처리구 쪽에 모스 윈드솔루션을 가동시켜 초음파가 발생하도록 놓은 후 파이프 중앙에 흰줄숲모기(Aedes albopictus)를 방사시켰고 1시간 뒤 양 케이지를 밀봉, 냉동시켜 유입된 흰줄숲모기의 성별과 수를 파악했다. 비선택적 실험은 150x200x150cm의 모기장 안에 상부만 열린 아크릴 케이지를 넣고, 아크릴 케이지 내부에 철망 뚜껑이 있는 용기에 담긴 쥐를 넣어두었다. 처리구 쪽에는 모스 윈드솔루션을 가동시켜 놓았다. 모기장에 흰줄숲모기를 방사시키고, 시간당 아크릴 케이지에 유입된 모기의 수를 파악하였다. 그 결과 두 실험 모두에서 모스 윈드솔루션이 대조구 대비 최대 80%의 모기 기피 효과를 보였음을 확인할 수 있었다.

We demonstrated an effective way of preparing melt spinnable mesophase pitches via catalytic hydrogenation of petroleum residue (fluidized catalytic cracking-decant oil) and their subsequent thermal soaking. The mesophase pitches thus obtained were analyzed in terms of their viscosity, elemental composition, solubility, molecular weight, softening point and optical texture. We found that zeolite-induced catalytic hydrogenation under high hydrogen pressure contributed to a large variation in the properties of the pitches. As the hydrogen pressure increased, the C/H ratio decreased, and the solubility in n-hexane increased. The mesophase pitch with entirely anisotropic domains of flow texture exhibited good meltspinnability. The mesophase carbon fibers obtained from the catalytically hydrogenated petroleum residue showed moderate mechanical properties.

This study determined diagnostic threshold of polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) for cytological endometritis (CEM) and its impacts on reproductive performance in dairy cows. Uterine cytology using 407 Holstein cows was performed at 4 weeks postpartum and proportion of endometrial cells and PMN was evaluated. A receiver operating characteristics curve was built to assess the cutoff level above which the PMN proportion affected the hazard of pregnancy by 200 days postpartum. The cutoff level for CEM was set at ≥14% PMN (sensitivity = 31.3%, specificity = 81.7%, P < 0.05). Cows with CEM had a lower probability of resumption of cyclicity (OR = 0.58 P < 0.05) and lower hazard of pregnancy by 200 days postpartum (hazard ratio = 0.58, P = 0.0001) than cows without CEM. Cows with CEM tended to have a lower probability of pregnancy to the first insemination (OR = 0.65, P < 0.1) and a greater number of insemination per conception (2.3 vs 2.2, P < 0.1) than cows without CEM. In conclusion, the threshold level of PMN was 14% to define CEM at 4 weeks postpartum and CEM decreased subsequent reproductive performance in dairy cow

Physical and electrochemical qualities were analyzed after KOH activation of a direct methanol fuel cell using needle coke as anode supporter. The results of research on support loaded with platinum-ruthenium suggest that an activated KOH needle coke container has the lowest onset potential and the highest degree of catalyst activity among all commercial catalysts. Through an analysis of the CO stripping voltammetry, we found that KOH activated catalysis showed a 21% higher electrochemical active surface area (ECSA), with a value of 31.37 m2/g, than the ECSA of deactivated catalyst (25.82 m2/g). The latter figure was 15% higher than the value of one specific commercial catalyst (TEC86E86).

Insect pollinators of the endanger orchid Cypripedium japonicum were surveyed and identified during two years, as a part of a conservation project of the orchid at Jukyeup-san and Hwaak-san (Mt.), South Korea. In total 40 individuals of 16 species in 4 families were identified. The dominant family was Halictidae, and Lasioglossum exiliceps Vachal visited the most frequently C. japonicum during the surveys. The average visiting frequency was 2.5 individuals per hour and the highest 4.3, from 12:00 – 13:00 in a day. After 15:00 insects did not visit the flowers at all. However, all of the visiting insects were found to not carry a pollinium or pollens of the orchard on their bodies; pollen carryover by any of the visiting insects did not occur at all. The orchid seems to require certain pollinators in particular body thickness due to its unique pollination mechanism. The orchid has two exit route openings, around 1 cm in diametre, where the entrapped insects can exit and an anther is situated just in front of each opening. It was inferred that a pollen carrier should be around 1 cm in body thickness. Therefore, the candidate species as the proper pollen carriers can be Tetralonia nipponensis Perez, Xylocopa appendiculata circumvolans Smith and Bombus consobrinus Dahlbom among the surveyed visitors.

Peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs) are family of innate immune molecules that recognize bacterial peptidoglycan. PGRP-LE, a member of the PGRP family, selectively binds to diaminopimelic acid (DAP)-type peptidoglycan to activate both the immune deficiency (IMD) and proPhenoloxidase (proPO) pathways in insects. A PGRP-LE-dependent induction of autophagy to control Listeria monocytogenes has also been reported. We identified and partially characterized a novel PGRP-LE homologue, from Tenebrio molitor and analyzed its functional role in the survival of the insect against infection by a DAP-type PGN containing intracellular pathogen, L. monocytogenes. The cDNA is comprised of an open reading frame (ORF) of 990 bp and encodes a polypeptide of 329 residues. TmPGRP-LE contains one PGRP domain, but lacks critical residues for amidase activity. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed a broad constitutive expression of the transcript at various stages of development spanning from larva to adult. RNAi mediated knockdown of the transcripts followed by a challenge with L. monocytogenes showed a significant reduction in survival rate of the larvae, suggesting a putative role of TmPGRP-LE in sensing and control of L. monocytogenes infections in T. molitor. These results implicate PGRP-LE as a defense protein necessary for survival of T. molitor against infection by L. monocytogenes.

CD63, a member of tetraspanin membrane protein family, plays pivotal role in cell growth, motility, signal transduction, host-pathogen interactions and cancer. In this work, the cDNA encoding CD63 homologue (TmCD63) was cloned from larvae of coleopteran beetle, Tenebrio molitor. The cDNA is comprised of an open reading frame of 705 bp, encoding putative protein of 235 amino acid residues. In silico analysis shows that the protein has four putative transmembrane domains and one large extracellular loop. The characteristic ‘Cys-Cys-Gly’ motif and ‘Cys188’ residues are highly conserved in the large extracellular loop. Phylogenetic analysis of TmCD63 revealed that they belong to the insect cluster with 50-56% identity. Analysis of spatial expression patterns demonstrated that TmCD63 mRNA is mainly expressed in gut and Malphigian tubules of larvae and the testis of the adult. Developmental expression patterns of CD63 mRNA showed that TmCD63 transcripts are detected in late larval, pupal and adult stages. Interestingly, TmCD63 transcript was upregulated the maximum 4.5 fold in response to DAP-type peptidoglycan during the first 6 h, although other immune elicitors also made significant increase in the transcript level at later time-points. These results suggest that CD63 might contribute to T. molitor immune response against various microbial pathogens.

Apolipophorin III (apoLp-III) is a well-known hemolymph protein having a functional role in lipid transport and immune response of insects. We cloned full-length cDNA encoding putative apoLp-III from larvae of the coleopteran beetle, Tenebrio molitor (TmapoLp-III), by identification of clones corresponding to the partial sequence of TmapoLp-III, subsequently followed with full length sequencing by a clone-by-clone primer walking method. The complete cDNA consists of 890 nucleotides, including an ORF encoding 196 amino acid residues. Excluding a putative signal peptide of the first 20 amino acid residues, the 176-residue mature apoLp-III has a calculated molecular mass of 19,146 Da. Genomic sequence analysis with respect to its cDNA showed that TmapoLp-III was organized into four exons interrupted by three introns. Several immune-related transcription factor binding sites were discovered in the putative 5’-flanking region. BLAST and phylogenetic analysis reveals that TmapoLp-III has high sequence identity (88%) with Tribolium castaneum apoLp-III but shares little sequence homologies (<26%) with other apoLp-IIIs. Homology modeling of Tm apoLp-III shows a bundle of five amphipathic helices, including a short helix 3’. The ‘helix-short helix-helix’ motif was predicted to be implicated in lipid binding interactions, through reversible conformational changes and accommodating the hydrophobic residues to the exterior for stability. Highest level of TmapoLp-III mRNA was detected at late pupal stages, albeit it is expressed in the larval and adult stages at lower levels. The tissue specific expression of the transcripts showed significantly higher numbers in larval fat body and adult integument. In addition, TmapoLp-III mRNA was found to be highly up-regulated in late stages of L. monocytogenes or E. coli challenge. These results indicate that TmapoLp-III may play an important role in innate immune responses against bacterial pathogens in T. molitor.

Poly(vinylidene chloride) (PVDC)-derived nanoporous carbons were prepared by various activation methods: heat-treatment under an inert atmosphere, steam activation, and potassium hydroxide (KOH) activation at 873, 1073, and 1273 K. The pore structures of PVDC-derived nanoporous carbons were characterized by the N2 adsorption technique at 77 K. Heat treatment in an inert atmosphere increased the specific surface area and micropore volume with elevating temperature, while the average micropore width near 0.65 nm was not significantly changed, reflecting the characteristic pore structure of ultramicroporous carbon. Steam activation for PVDC at 873 and 1073 K also yielded ultramicroporosity. On the other hand, the steam activated sample at 1273 K had a wider average micropore width of 1.48 nm, correlating with a supermicropore. The KOH activation increased the micropore volume with elevating temperature, which is accompanied by enlargement of the average micropore width from 0.67 to 1.12 nm. The average pore widths of KOH-activated samples were strongly governed by the activation temperature. We expect that these approaches can be utilized to simply control the porosity of PVDC-derived nanoporous carbons.

To identify whether higher expression of carboxylesterase (CbE) E4 in Myzus persicae is due to gene duplication, gene copy number was determined by quantitative real-time PCR. In addition, to determine the actual protein concentration of CbE E4 and it activity, Western blotting and activity staining were conducted. CbE gene copy number was highly correlated with carbamate resistance ratio (r2=0.934). However, CbE E4 expression level was little correlated with insecticide resistance ratio (r2<0.046) and no apparent correlation was observed among the gene copy number, protein quantity and total activity of CbE E4. Therefore, it was assumed that not only quantitative changing but also qualitative alteration of CbE E4 occurred in M. persicae. To investigate any potential alteration of CbE E4, mutation survey was conducted by sequencing of CbE E4 from various local strains of M. persicae. G137D and W251L mutations have been known as the main mutations associated with structural change leading to resistance. Interestingly, a new G134C mutation, which is in proximity of G137D mutation, was identified in the oxyanion hole of CbE E4. To predict the functional role of this mutation in resistance, 3-dimensional structure modeling was conducted. In summary, CbE E4 appears to be involved in resistance to both pyrethroids and carbamates as a nonspecific hydrolase or sequestration protein in M. persicae.

Ski protein is a nuclear transcription factor that does not bind DNA directly. Due to its unique binding properties with multiple factors, Ski could perform various roles in the regulation of both cellular proliferation and differentiation. We had previously reported that Ski protein is present in granulosa cells of atretic follicles, but not in preovulatory follicles, suggesting that Ski has a role in apoptosis of granulosa cells. The alternative fate of granulosa cells other than apoptosis is to differentiate to luteal cells; however, it is unknown whether Ski is expressed and has a role in granulosa cells undergoing luteinization. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine whether the initiation of luteinization with luteinizing hormone (LH) directly regulates expression of Ski in the luteinized granulosa and luteal cells after ovulation by in vitro models. RT-PCR and real time PCR analysis respectively revealed that LH had no effect on c-Ski mRNA expression in the cultured granulosa cells regardless of LH treatment. Though Ski protein isabsent in granulosa cells of preovulatory follicle, its mRNA(c-Ski) was expressed and the level was unchanged even after LH surge. Taken together, these results demonstrated that Ski protein expression is induced in granulosa cells upon luteinization, and suggested that its expression is regulated post-transcriptionally. Moreover, expression of mRNA of Arkadia, an E3 ubiquitin ligases, in luteinizing granulosa cells in vivo was assessed by real time-PCR. The levels of Arkadia mRNA expression were unchanged during follicular growth and post ovulatory luteinization. These findings suggest that Ski protein level may be regulated during luteinization at translational and/or post-translational level but not by Arkadia.

Sloan-Kettering virus gene product of a cellular pro-oncogene c-Ski is an unique nuclear pro-onco protein and belongs to the Ski/Sno proto-oncogene family. Ski plays multiple roles in a variety of cell types, it can induce both oncogenic transformation and terminal muscle differentiation when expressed at high levels. Ski protein is implicated in proliferation/differentiation in a variety of cells. The alternative fate of granulosa cells other than apoptosis is to differentiate to luteal cells, however, it is unknown whether Ski is expressed and has a role in granulosa cells undergoing luteinization. Thus, the aim of this study was, by means of immunohistochemical methods, to locate Ski protein in the rat ovaries during ovulation and corpora lutea(CL) formation to predict the possible involvement of Ski in luteinization. In addition, to examine whether the initiation of luteinization with luteinizing hormone(LH) directly regulates expression of Ski in the luteinized granulosa and luteal cells after ovulation by in vivo models. In order to examine the expression pattern of Ski protein along with the progress of luteinization, follicular growth was induced by administration of equine chorionic gonadtropin to immature female rat, and luteinization was induced by human chorionic gonadtropin treatment to mimic luteinizing hormone(LH) surge. While no Ski-positive granulosa cells were present in preovulatory follicle, Ski protein expression was induced in response to LH surge, and was maintained after the formation of corpus luteum(CL). These results indicate that Ski is profoundly expressed in the luteinized granulosa cells and luteal cells of CL during luteinization, and suggest that Ski may play a role in luteinization of granulosa cells.