A root serves as an essential organ in plant growth by up-taking nutrients and water from soil and supporting the rest of a plant body. Root apical growth and system architecture have been extensively studied because they strongly affect overall plant growth and yields. Some plant species also utilize roots as storage organs. Many of them, including sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), cassava (Manihot esculenta), and radish (Raphanus sativus) are important crops, however their root development has remained elusive. In this study, we characterized radial root growth in the radish and found that it is very similar to the secondary growth in stems. We identified well established cambium zones in the actively growing radish roots. Cell proliferation activities in the cambium zones positively correlated with root growth rates and final yields. Through a comparative analysis with Arabidopsis root expression data, we selected some putative transcription factors whose expression is highly enriched in the cambia and validated their expression in various stages of radish roots. By comparing their expression in two inbred lines with distinctive radial root growth, we identified transcription factors that are involved in morphological differences. More importantly, our investigation suggests that the differences in the root growth of two radish inbred lines are from changes in cytokinin responses. These findings together highlight that radish could serve as an excellent system for studying root crops and that transcriptional regulation and cytokinin signaling are indispensable for the secondary root growth.

In 2010, amidst nationwide foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak and avian flu (AI), burial sites were urgently createdfor the disposal of animal carcasses. Some of the burial sites didn't satisfy the carcass burial standard (e.g. too manycarcasses were buried in one site, or size or location were not suitable), causing secondary environmental pollutionincluding collapse of burial sites, contamination of ground water, soil and adjacent streams, and malodor. In this regard,there has been growing demand for measures to reduce the environmental impact of the burial sites and guidelines fordesigning and management of burial sites, considering domestic characteristics, to stabilize them. This study aims toacquire basic data to build pilot burial sites. To this end, we established lab scale reactors to analyze decompositioncharacteristics of buried bovine and swine carcasses and properties of leachate and malodorous substances from them.The results showed that the decomposition of the samples inflated all reactors on its fifth day. But with time, as the volumeof the samples decreased, the solum started to subside. In conclusion, at least 8 weeks was needed for the burial sitesto stabilize. Malodorous substances, unlike other types of gas, were found to have relatively high content of sulfurousgases from 43 to 355 ppb. The four types of detected sulfurous gases were all classified as specific malodorous substances,producing rotting and unpleasant smell, irritating skin, eyes and the respiratory system, and damaging the central nervoussystem. Therefore, it is considered that controling sulfurous gases will play an important role in treating malodoroussubstances from burial sites.

In this study, asbestos in air during dismantlement and removal of slate roof tiles and asbestos that could linger in mask filter and safety wear were investigated. In addition, a wetting agent and its physical properties for water were studied, while the possibility of prevention of drift was assessed based on the properties. According to the analysis of 100 air samples, asbestos concentrations ranged from 0.001 to 0.007 f/cc and the average was 0.002 f/cc. The concentrations of asbestos in all the samples were below 0.01 f/cc, emission limit for asbestos-removal facilities. The use of a wetting agent and the use of water were compared to analyze asbestos concentration in air during asbestos removal. According to the analysis, asbestos concentration was 0.002 f/cc on average with wetting agents and the concentration was 0.003 f/cc when water was used. The surface tension of wetting agents showed 28.9 to 42.1 mN/m range and the average was 34.9 mN/ m. The surface tension of tap water showed 72.2 mN/m. Water-absorption time was from 16 seconds to 300 seconds for wetting agents and the agents showed a significant difference with one another. Surface area on the roof tiles was measured by instillation of its spread. For wetting agents, the range was from 31.2 to 64.7 cm2, with the average of 40.6 cm2 and all wetting agents showed larger areas than tap water. Drying rate was measured for the assessment of wetting. According to the measurement, the rate ranged from 0.094 to 0.144 min−1 and 0.110 min−1 was the average. It was found that the drying rate of tap water was bigger than those of all the wetting agents, but some wetting agents did not show a big difference.

There are many difficulties to supply constant power to marine facilities which operate in the sea. Especially, there is a limit to stand alone power supply systems due to the influence of weather conditions. That's why a hybrid power supply system is required to overcome these problems. This paper will describe an Electronic Anti-Fouling System (EAFS) to maximise the power efficiency for a solar - wave hybrid power generation system. A main factor reducing the efficiency of a Wave Energy Converter (WEC) is due to the attachment of aquatic life forms. Therefore the aim of this research is to develop a simulation programme to enable the design of more efficient EAFS for hybrid power generation systems and to provide valuable data for production of more efficient EAFS.

Five constituents were isolated from the stem of Acanthopanax senticosus. Their structures were elucidated as (-)-sesamin (1), iso-fraxidin (2), 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (3), syringin (4) and acanthoside D (5) by spectral analysis. Among these compounds, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (3) was isolated for the first time from this plant.