Numerous studies have reported that good adhesion and fluorination of carbon materials in a fluoropolymer matrix enhance their electrical and mechanical properties. However, a composite reinforced with oxyfluorinated graphite has not been reported for improving mechanical properties. This paper discusses the fabrication of conductive fluorinated ethylene–propylene (FEP)/oxyfluorinated graphite (f-graphite) composite bipolar plates (BPs) via compression molding. To investigate the effects of fluorinating graphite, graphite with a large particle size of 500 μm was mixed with FEP powder with a small particle size of 8 μm through ball milling. The FEP/graphite composites exhibited high anisotropic electrical conductivity with the in-plane conductivity much higher than the through-plane conductivity because of the planar orientation of the graphite sheets. Therefore, the mechanical properties of the composites such as flexural strength tended to deteriorate with increasing graphite content. In particular, the FEP/f-graphite composites exhibited excellent flexural strength of 12 MPa, much higher than that of FEP/graphite composites at 9 MPa with a graphite content of 80 wt%. The interfacial interaction between FEP and f-graphite led to improved physical compatibilization, which contributed to enhance the mechanical properties of these composites. Our results are a step toward developing BPs for use in high-temperature fuel cells and heat-sink components.

This study is a cross-sectional study for conscripts with chronic low back pain, where it is designed to investigate general characteristics that conscripts with chronic low back pain carry, and it is also aimed to analyze the correlation as well as discrepancy within pain, depression and body mass index depending on their ranks. In this study, 90 Korean conscripts with chronic low back pain participated. And in order to analyze general characteristics as well as pain, depression and body mass index of the subjects, this study adopted a survey questionnaire upon general characteristics, and it also employed Visual Analogue Scacle(VAS) and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression(CES-D) Scale which have proven their credibility, where BMI values for the subjects were calculated based on 'Asian Pacific standard' Body Mass Index(BMI). From the general characteristics exhibited by the subjects through this study, average age and average height of the subjects were 20.78±1.41 and 175.97±5.34 respectively; and corporals displayed the highest ratio of 42% with the chronic low back pain while 40% of the total subjects experienced the duration of the illness less than 6 to 9 months. Moreover, 57.8% of all subjects were reportedly suffering moderate pain, and 48% exhibited depression while 49% carried BMI value between 18.5 and 22.9kg/m2(normal range). Based on the analysis of correlation among pain, depression, discrepancy of BMI depending on the ranks and each independent variable, it appears that there is no significant difference amongst the ranks, and there is no correlation between independent variables; however, it was obvious that all groups divided by the ranks had a moderate pain(45-74mm), depression(≥16) and BMI value in normal range(18.5-22.9).

AUDIT-K(한국형 알코올 중독 간이선별 검사법)을 이용하여 일상적으로 생활하고 있는 상당수의 잠재적인 위험 음주자들을 선별 할 수 있었으며 연령, 종교, 결혼여부, 직업, 소득음주사망 가족력, 음주시작 연령, 흡연, BMI(체질량지수)는 통계적으로 유의한 차이가 없었으며, 학력, 음주기간만 통계적으로 유의하였다. 이러한 결과는 교육을 더 받은 사람의 남성이 알코올 소비가 더 높다고 한 선행연구와 부합하는 결과를 나타내었으며 교육수준 또한 무엇을 어떻게 배웠는가에 따른 차이를 살펴 볼 필요가 있음을 시사하며, 교육에 따른 알코올 소비도 각각 다른 결과를 나타냄을 알 수 있다. 또한 나이가 적을수록 술을 많이 마시면 음주기간이 길어질 것이고 기존의 음주시작 연령에 대한 연구와 일치하는 결과가 나타났다. 본 연구에서는 음주 기간이 알코올 사용 장애의 가장 큰 요인이었으며 음주 기간을 단축하기 위한 방법으로는 음주 시작연령을 최대한 늦출 수 있는 국가 정부 제도의 대책 및 교육이 필요하다고 생각된다.

In this study, we constructed viral vector for soybean by using Soybean yellow common mosaic virus (SYCMV) infecting both Glycine max and Glycine soja. SYCMV-derived viral vector was tested to use as Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) vector for functional analysis of soybean genes and as protein expression vector for foreign protein expression. In vitro transcript with 5’ cap analog m7GpppG from a full-length infectious vector of SYCMV driven by T7 promoter was inoculated to soybean to test infectivity of the clone (pSYCMVT7-full). 5’-capped transcript was able to infect soybean plants. The symptoms observed in soybean plants infected by either the vector or the sap from SYCMV-infected leaves were indistinguishable, suggesting that the vector had an equal biological activity shown by virus itself. To further utilize the vector, an additional DNA-based vector was constructed. The full-length cDNA was inserted into a binary vector flanked by CaMV 35S promoter and the nopaline synthase terminator (pSYCMV35S-full). To test if the vector infects soybean and subsequently induces gene silencing, we prepared two constructs containing fragments of Phytoene desaturase (PDS) gene (pSYCMV35S-PDS1) and small subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (rbcS) gene (pSYCMV35S-rbcS2) from soybean plant. Plants infiltrated with the constructs through Agrobacterium-mediated method showed distinct symptoms such as photobleaching in plants infiltrated with pSYCMV-PDS1 and pale green or yellowing in plants infiltrated with pSYCMV-rbcS2. In addition, down-regulations of mRNA levels of two genes were confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). To test if the vector can be used for foreign protein expression in soybean plants, we prepared a construct encoding amino acids 135-160 of VP1 FMDV serotype O1 Campos (O1C) (pSYCMV35S-FMDV). Plants infiltrated with the construct through Agrobacterium-mediated method showed that soybean plant infiltrated with pSYCMV35S-FMDV only was detected by Western blotting using O1C antibody. These results support that SYCMV-derived viral vector can be used as VIGS vector or protein expression vector in soybean plants.