During the operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP), the generation of radioactive waste, including dry active waste (DAW), concentrates, spent resin, and filters, mandates the implementation of appropriate disposal methods to adhere to Korea’s waste acceptance criteria (WAC). In this context, this study investigates the potential use of polymer concrete (PC) as a high-integrity container (HIC) material for solidifying and packaging these waste materials. PC is a versatile composite material comprising binding polymers, aggregates, and additives, known for its exceptional strength and chemical stability. A comprehensive analysis of PC’s long-term integrity was conducted in this study. First, its compressive strength, which is crucial for ensuring the structural stability of HICs over extended periods, was evaluated. Subsequently, the resilience of PC was tested under various stress conditions, including biological, radiological, thermal, and chemical stressors. The findings of this study indicate that PC exhibits remarkable long-term properties, demonstrating exceptional stability even when subjected to diverse stressors. The results therefore underscore the potential viability of PC as a reliable material for constructing high-integrity containers, thus contributing to the safe and sustainable management of radioactive waste in NPPs.

This study was designed to optimize ethanol extraction process of unfertilized corn silk (UCS) to maximize phytochemical contents and bioactivities. The response surface methodology (RSM) with central composite design (CCD) was employed to obtain the optimal extraction conditions. The influence of ethanol concentration, extraction temperature and extraction time on total polyphenol contents, total flavonoid contents, maysin contents, 2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl(DPPH) radical scavenging activities and tyrosinase inhibition were analyzed. For all dependable variables, the most significant factor was ethanol concentration followed by extraction temperature and extraction time. The following optimum conditions were determined by simultaneous optimization of several responses with the Derringer’s desirability function using the numerical optimization function of the Design-Expert program: ethanol concentration 80.45%, extraction temperature 53.49°C, and extraction time 4.95 h. Under these conditions, the predicted values of total polyphenol contents, total flavonoid contents, maysin contents, DPPH radical scavenging activity and tyrosinase inhibition were 2758.74 μg GAE/g dried sample, 1520.81 μg QUE/g dried sample, 810.26 mg/100g dried sample, 56.86% and 43.49%, respectively, and the overall desirability (D) was 0.74.

Agro-morphological characterization of Hibiscus germplasm is a fundamental prerequisite to initiate plant breeding programs. The prime aim of this study was to characterize 107 Hibiscus syriacus genotypes using agromorphological characteristics and to collect useful data to facilitate the breeders for H. syriacus breeding programs. In this study, it has been recorded that this species appears to have innumerable variability in the morphological characteristics among Korean and exotic cultivars. Plant height of Korean and exotic H. syriacus cultivars were recorded and data revealed that the maximum plant height (143 cm) was recorded in ‘Woodbridge’ which had tall-erect plant shape. ‘Serenade’ and ‘Saemaeul’ cultivars had vigorous growth and had plant height of 141 and 137 cm, respectively and both had tall-erect plant shape. The diameters of H. syriacus flower ranged from 4.1 cm in ‘Kakchang’ to 9.4 cm in ‘Pyonghwa’. The data analysis exhibited that analysis flowers of ~ 86% of Korean cultivars had single type of flower’s form compared to exotic cultivars (~ 61%). The data related to flower shape showed that among Korean native cultivars the maximum plants (52.1%) had intermediate type of flowers followed by bowl (26.1%) and flat type (21.8%). Similar trend in exotic cultivars were observed for flower shape. In case of petal shape among total cultivars studied, 27.9% native H. syriacus plants had broard type of petals whereas 17.7 exotic cultivars had intermediate type of petals. Present results indicated high variability among H. syriacus cultivars, which presents great significance for Hibiscus breeding programs and for genetic studies in order to develop new varieties of H. syriacus.

The taxonomic importance of pollen morphologyin family Malvaceae had long been acknowledged as it pro-vides the basis for palynological and phylogenetic analysis.In present study, pollen morphological characteristics of var-ious Hibiscus syriacus cultivars were examined. The objec-tive of this study was to provide comprehensive evidence onpollen morphology and to determine pollen morphologicaldiversity in cultivars of H. syriacus that would be useful forplant taxonomy and classification. To get a clear insights ofthe pollen morphology, scanning electron microscopy (SEM)was carried out. It has been recorded that the pollen diam-eter of 16 cultivars of H. syriacus ranges from 108.81 to172.15 •Ïm. The maximum pollen size was reported fromthe cultivar ‘Chongdansim’ followed by the cultivar ‘Paedal’.The maximum spine exine length was reported from‘Jabae’ (25.29µm) followed by ‘Collie mullens’ (23.25µm),whereas the minimum value was recorded from ‘Paedal’(8.16µm). It is apparent from this study that pollen morphol-ogy of various H. syriacus cultivars was fairly uniform, andin almost all studied cultivars the pollen shape was spheroi-dal. The spines were present in all studied cultivars and var-ied considerably among the cultivars. The pollen spinefeatures presented notable variations which were of greatsignificance at both specific and generic levels, and hasalso been helpful in understanding the process of spine evo-lution within H. syriacus. The maximum distance betweenspines was observed from cultivar ‘Gyewolhyang’ that haddistance of 45.03µm. The morphological characteristics ofpollen studied in this study could be useful in performing amore efficient Hibiscus hybridization and breeding in future.

A new soybean cultivar for tofu and soy-paste, "Daemang 2", was developed from the cross between 'Shinpaldal 2' and'Seokryang' by soybean breeding team in the Yeongnam Agricultural Research Institute (YARI) in 2005. A promising line,SS93205-2B-8-3-2-1-1-1