In this study, we have determined mitochondrial genome of Matsucoccus thunbergianae isolated in Korea. The circular mitogenome of M. thunbergianae is 15,406 bp including 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, and 22 transfer RNAs. AT ratio is 78.2%. Maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inference phylogenetic trees show that M. thunbergianae is clustered with M. matsumurae, and family Margarodidae is clustered with family Pseudococcidae with enough supportive values.

Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) is one of the most widely grown winter forage crops in Korea, but its yields are known to be greatly affected by drought that occur frequently in spring. This study aimed to compare the growth and tolerance response characteristics to drought stress in several Italian ryegrass varieties cultivated in Korea. Twenty-day-old Italian ryegrass was subjected to drought treatment for 4 days, and then the growth and physiological responses of the plants were compared. Drought stress reduced leaf length, fresh weight, and dry weight in all Italian ryegrass varieties compared to the control. In addition, chlorophyll content was significantly decreased in all varieties treated with drought stress, but Fv/Fm was significantly decreased only in Winter hawk. For H2O2 and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents, Winter hawk showed the highest increase and New dawn showed the least increase. In terms of relative water content (RWC), New dawn showed the least decrease and Winter hawk showed the greatest decrease. These results indicate that New dawn is relatively drought-tolerant and Winter hawk is a drought-sensitive variety, indicating that each variety of Italian ryegrass has different drought tolerance mechanisms, which may provide basic insight for the development of tolerant varieties in the future.

Drought stress is one of the major factors that reduce plant growth and productivity. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of exogenous acetic acid pretreatment on drought stress tolerance response in plants. Fourteen-day-old alfalfa plants were pretreated with 15 mM acetic acid, and then subsequently subjected to drought stress for 6 days. The fresh weight and relative water content in the leaves of acetic acid pretreated alfalfa plants were increased compared to the control group. The chlorophyll and carotenoid contents were slightly decreased in the acetic acid treatment. The H2O2 and proline contents were also significantly decreased in the acetic acid treatment. These results suggest that the scavenging mechanism of reactive oxygen species in alfalfa activated by acetic acid pretreatment is involved in conferring tolerance to drought stress.

목적 : 본 연구는 입체시 검사법들의 재현성과 교환가능성에 대해 알아보고자 하였다. 방법 : 안과적 질환과 관련된 진단을 받은 적이 없으며 교정시력이 20/20 이상인 30명을 대상으로 하였다. 굴 절이상을 확인한 후 입체시 검사(티트무스, 랑 Ⅱ, 티엔오, 프리즈비 검사)를 각각 하루 이상의 간격을 두고 두 번 검사하였다. 검사 간의 신뢰도 분석은 급내상관계수를 이용하여 분석하였다. 결과 : 반복 검사를 통한 입체시 검사의 신뢰도 확인에서 프리즈비 검사(p=0.103, ICC=0.99) 에서만 높은 재 현성을 보였다. 입체시 검사 간의 비교에서는 프리즈비와 티엔오 검사(p=0.358, ICC=0.89)에서 좋은 호환성을 확 인할 수 있었다. 20초미만의 작은 차이를 나타내는 경우 또한 42%로 모든 검사법들의 비교 중 가장 큰 비중을 차 지하는 것으로 나타났다. 결론 : 입체시 검사의 진행은 방문 간에 일정하게 유지되는 것이 좋으나 검사 방법들의 특성에 따라 신뢰도와 호환성이 좋은 입체시 검사와 함께 평가되는 것이 필요하다. 본 연구의 결과 프리즈비 검사가 신뢰도와 호환성에서 좋은 것으로 나타나 다른 검사와 함께 평가하는 것이 유용할 것으로 사료된다.

호접란은 세계적으로 분화뿐만 아니라 절화로도 판매되는 주 요 화훼작물이다. 상업적 종묘 대량생산은 조직배양 기술에 의 해 이루어지고 있으나 우리나라는 아직까지 균일하고 우수한 발근묘 생산 기술이 확립되지 않았다. 생육이 고르고 우수한 발근 배양묘를 생산하기 위한 적정 배양 신초수를 찾기 위해 용적 500mL 유리 배양병에 호접란 2품종(‘Lovely Angel’과 ‘UniVivace’)의 신초를 1, 4, 7, 10개씩 배양한 후 3개월에 지상부 및 지하부 초기 생육 특성을 조사한 결과, 7개의 신초를 배양하였을 때 신초의 생육이나 뿌리 유도 및 생육에 효과적이 었다. 또한, 배양병 재질이 발근묘 생육에 미치는 영향을 확인하 고자 용적이 500mL로 동일한 유리 배양병과 플라스틱 배양병 에 신초 7개 배양 3개월 후 2품종의 생육 특성을 비교한 결과, 2품종 모두 플라스틱 배양병 보다는 유리 배양병이 유의적으로 생육에 효과적인 것으로 확인되었다. 기내 발근묘 생산을 위한 배양병 재질의 영향은 이후까지 지속적으로 영향을 미치는 것으 로 확인되었다. 결론적으로, 균일한 호접란 발근묘 생산은 플라 스틱 재질보다는 유리병 재질의 배양병이 적합하며, 특히, 용적 이 500mL인 유리 배양병의 경우 신초를 7개(묘당 재식면적 5.4㎠) 이내로 배양하는 것이 바람직한 것으로 확인되었다.

본 연구에서는 호흡동조화기법의 대안으로 딥러닝 자유호흡기법에서 b-value 별 겉보기확산계수 값을 평가하고 확 산강조영상과 겉보기확산계수 지도의 해부학적 일치성을 분석하여 적절한 여기횟수 값을 알아보고자 하였다. 연구 방법은 2023년 7월부터 2024년 1월까지 간 자기공명영상 검사가 의뢰된 성인 남녀 35명을 대상으로 하였고 사용 장비는 Magnetom Skyra 3.0T(Siemens, Germany)를 이용하였다. 자유호흡기법의 비교를 위해 b-value 50, 400, 800(s/mm2)의 여기횟수를 각각 딥러닝 호흡동조화기법에서 2,3,4으로 딥러닝을 이용하지 않은 일반 자유호 흡기법에서 4,6,8으로 검사하였다. 딥러닝을 추가한 일반 자유호흡기법에서는 1,2,3 여기횟수, 2,3,4 여기횟수, 3,5,6 여기횟수, 4,6,8 여기횟수로 변화하였다. 연구 결과 딥러닝 자유호흡기법에서 간의 좌엽과 우엽, 담낭의 평균 겉보기확산계수 값은 딥러닝 호흡동조화기법과 비교하여 모두 통계적 유의성을 확인하였다. 한편 정성적 평가의 해 부학적 일치성을 분석한 결과 딥러닝 자유호흡기법의 3,5,6 여기횟수와 4,6,8 여기횟수에서 가장 높은 점수를 얻었 으며 검사 시간에서는 딥러닝 호흡동조화기법과 비교하여 약 51%, 40% 감소하였다. 따라서 간 진단에 있어 딥러닝 자유호흡기법에서 b-value 별 적절한 여기횟수 값을 이용한다면 겉보기확산계수 지도의 정확도 유지와 함께 검사 시간을 감소시킬 수 있어 임상적으로 유용한 검사가 될 것으로 사료된다.

The growing significance of sustainable energy technologies underscores the need for safe and efficient management of spent nuclear fuels (SNFs), particularly via deep geological disposal (DGD). DGD involves the long-term isolation of SNFs from the biosphere to ensure public safety and environmental protection, necessitating materials with high corrosion resistance for DGD canisters. This study investigated the feasibility of a Cu–Ni film, fabricated via additive manufacturing (AM), as a corrosion-resistant layer for DGD canister applications. A wire-fed AM technique was used to deposit a millimeter-scale Cu–Ni film onto a carbon steel (CS) substrate. Electrochemical analyses were conducted using aerated groundwater from the KAERI underground research tunnel (KURT) as an electrolyte with an NaCl additive to characterize the oxic corrosion behavior of the Cu–Ni film. The results demonstrated that the AM-fabricated Cu–Ni film exhibited enhanced corrosion resistance (manifested as lower corrosion current density and formation of a dense passive layer) in an NaCl-supplemented groundwater solution. Extensive investigations are necessary to elucidate microstructural performance, mechanical properties, and corrosion resistance in the presence of various corroding agents to simplify the implementation of this technology for DGD canisters.

This study emphasizes R&D as a management strategy for small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) to achieve competitive advantage and aims to analyze the impact of innovation resistance, prior knowledge, and technological capability on the intention to adopt R&D. The research targeted 403 decision-makers from SMEs that have not adopted R&D. The analysis revealed the following key findings: As a result, both technical capabilities and prior knowledge had a negative effect on innovation resistance. In addition, technological capabilities and prior knowledge had a positive effect on adoption intention, and innovation resistance had a negative effect on acceptance intention. The indirect effects of technical capabilities and prior knowledge both had a positive impact. In addition, we tested whether dependency on partners and trading organizations that accepted R&D had a moderating effect, but it was not significant. The academic implications of this study provide a detailed analysis of how prior knowledge and technological capability affect innovation resistance in SMEs and verify the intention to adopt R&D. The practical implications suggest a direction for small and medium-sized enterprises to reduce innovation resistance in accepting R&D, and companies need to recognize the suitability of R&D and recognize the importance of technological capabilities and prior knowledge in order to reduce innovation resistance.

From 2020, Korean Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency has reset the withdrawal time (WT) for veterinary drugs typically used in livestock in preparation for the introduction of positive list system (PLS) program in 2024. This study was conducted to reset the MRL for tiamulin (TML) in broiler chickens as a part of PLS program introduction. Forty-eight healthy Ross broiler chickens were orally administered with TML at the concentration of 25 g/L (TML-1, n=24) and 50 g/L (TML-2, n=24) for 5 days through drinking water, respectively. After the drug treatment, tissue samples were collected from six broiler chickens at 1, 2, 3 and 5 days, respectively. According to the previously established analysis method, residual TML concentrations in poultry tissues were determined using LC-MS/MS. In TML-1, TML in all tissues was detected less than LOQ at 2 days after drug treatment. In TML-2, TML in liver and kidney was detected more than LOQ at 2 days after treatment. According to the European Medicines Agency’s guideline on determination of withdrawal periods, withdrawal periods of TML-1 and TML-2 in poultry tissues were established to 0 and 2 days, respectively. In conclusion, the estimated WT of TML in poultry tissues is shorter than the current WT recommendation of 5 days for TML in broiler chickens.

Obesity occurs when the body consumes more energy than it requires and uses less energy, resulting in the accumulation of fat, which increases the number and size of fat cells in the body. It causes high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and joint crowding, making it difficult to fully treat. We investigated the effects of chito oligosaccharide(CHO) functional material, which suppresses fat accumulation, restores dyslipidemia values, and has no side effects.In this study, we investigated the ameliorative effects of CHO on obese mice fed a high-fat diet. The experimental groups were divided into 5 groups (n=10) of C57BL/6 mice: normal control (N), control group (C), and chito oligosaccharide low concentration (L), medium concentration (M), and high concentration (H) groups. We tested whether CHO has an effect on obesity through body weight and adipose tissue weighing, serum lipid testing, and histological examination. Experimental analysis showed that CHO reduced body weight and adipose tissue weight, improved the concentrations of TCHO, TG, HDL, and LDL, which are factors for dyslipidemia diagnosis, and decreased the diameter size of adipose tissue. These results suggest that CHO alleviates the levels of fat growth inhibition and dyslipidemia levels in obese-induced mice, and has a positive effect on obesity.

Mathematically modeling photosynthesis helps to interpret gas exchange in a plant and estimate the photosynthetic rate as affected by environmental factors. Notably, the photosynthetic rate varies among leaf vertical positions within a single plant. The objective of this study was to measure the distinct photosynthetic rate of lily (Lilium Oriental Hybrid ‘Casa Blanca’) at the upper, medium, and basal leaf positions. Subsequently, the FvCB (Farquhar-von Caemmerer-Berry) photosynthesis model was employed to determine the parameters of the model and compared it with a rectangular hyperbola photosynthesis model. The photosynthetic rates were measured at different intracellular CO2 concentrations () and photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) levels. SPAD values significantly decreased with lowered leaf position. The photosynthetic rates at the medium and basal leaves were lower compared with the upper leaves. FvCB model parameters,  and   , showed no significant difference between the medium and basal leaves. Estimated photosynthetic rates from derived parameters by the FvCB model demonstrated over 0.86 of R2 compared with measured data. The rectangular hyperbola model tended to overestimate or underestimate photosynthetic rates at high  with high PPFD levels or low  with high PPFD levels, respectively, at each leaf position. These results indicated that the parameters of the FvCB model with different leaf positions can be used to estimate the photosynthetic rate of lily.

Salinity stress is a major threat to plant growth and development, affecting crop yield and quality. This study investigated the effects of different salinity levels on photosynthetic responses and bulb growth of Lilium LA hybrid “‘Serrada’.” Plants were irrigated with 1 L of 0, 200, and 400 mM NaCl solutions every two weeks for 14 weeks in a greenhouse. At the end of the cultivation period, the substrate pH decreased, and electrical conductivity increased with increasing salinity. Regardless of salinity levels, the days to flowering and number of flowers were similar among treatments. In contrast, the flower width, plant height, number of leaves, and leaf area decreased with increasing NaCl concentrations. Although there were no differences in the photosystem II (PSII) operating efficiency and maximum quantum yield of PSII, net CO2 assimilation rates (An) and stomatal conductance (gs) were significantly reduced at 200 and 400 mM NaCl solutions compared to the control. At 400 mM NaCl solution, bulb diameter and weight significantly decreased at the end of the experiment. These results suggest that bulb growth inhibition could be attributed to limiting photosynthetic rate and stem growth. This finding suggests that salinity mitigation is necessary to maintain plant growth and photosynthetic capacity in lily cultivation on salt-affected soils.

We examine a single machine scheduling problem with step-improving jobs in which job processing times decrease step-wisely over time according to their starting times. The objective is to minimize total completion time which is defined as the sum of completion times of jobs. The total completion time is frequently considered as an objective because it is highly related to the total time spent by jobs in the system as well as work-in-progress. Many applications of this problem can be observed in the real world such as data gathering networks, system upgrades or technological shock, and production lines operated with part-time workers in each shift. Our goal is to develop a scheduling algorithm that can provide an optimal solution. For this, we present an efficient branch and bound algorithm with an assignment-based node design and tight lower bounds that can prune branch and bound nodes at early stages and accordingly reduce the computation time. In numerical experiments well designed to consider various scenarios, it is shown that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing method and can solve practical problems within reasonable computation time.

This study aimed to reconfirm the sex change scale and pattern of Tegillarca granosa. Although the sex ratio (female : male, female proportion) of T. granosa was 1:2.32 (30.2%) at the initial stage (2011) of the study, it was 1:0.94 (51.5%) after one year (2012) in the same population. The increase of the female proportion was greater in the 2+ year class (23.0%) when compared to the 1+ year class (19.2%). Overall, sex change ratio of 37.6% was observed in this population of T. granosa. The sex change ratio of the 2+ year class (39.3%) was higher than that of the 1+ year class (35.3%). And sex change ratio in the males (42.2%) was higher than that in the females (26.9%). The female proportion was the opposite of the result from 2006~2007, and one of the causes was presumed to be the difference in cumulative water temperature during the gonadal inactive stage (winter).

Fluorescent bacteria were isolated from sporocarps that browned into various mushrooms during survey at places of the production in Korea. We examined the pathogenicity, biodiversity, and genetic characteristics of the 19 strains identified as Pseudomonas tolaasii by sequence analysis of 16S rRNA and White Line Assay. The results emphasize the importance of rpoB gene system, fatty acid profiles, specific and sensitive PCR assays, and lipopeptide detection for the identification of P. tolaasii. As a result of these various analyses, 17 strains (CHM03~CHM19) were identified as P. tolaasii. The phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene showed that all strains were clustered closest to P. tolaasii lineage, two strains (CHM01, CHM02) were not identified as P. tolaasii and have completely different genetic characteristics as a result of fatty acids profile, specific and sensitive PCR, lipopetide detection, rpoB sequence and REP-PCR analysis. Pathogenicity tests showed 17 strains produce severe brown discolouration symptoms to button mushrooms and watersoaking of sporophore tissue within three days after inoculation. But two strains did not produce discolouration symptoms. Therefore, these two strains will be further investigated for correct species identification by different biological and molecular characteristics.