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.

Distillers dried grain (DDG) and makgeolli spent grain (MSG) are agricultural by-product to produce alcoholic beverage. However, they are known to contain enough nutrients. Mealworm is a promising insect resource for an animal feed ingredient as well as alternative human food. With low cost, DDG and MSG were investigated as a feed ingredient for rearing high quality mealworms. DDG and MSG were mixed with wheat bran and compared to control feed (only wheat bran) for its effects on larval survivorship, larval weight, duration for larval development, pupation rate, and pupal weight. Adding DDG on wheat bran showed positive results for larval weight, duration for larval developmental period, and pupation rate. However, adding MSG made longer duration for larval development, but it also improved larval weight, pupal weight with more than 90% pupation rate. We confirmed that adding 30～50% of DDG or MSG to conventional wheat bran have a strong potential to replace the conventional wheat bran insect feed for quality insect production.

Insect is an important player in the ecosystem as a prey for animals. Moreover, they are a valuable candidate food source for rearing animal. Tenebrio molitor (Coeloptera: Tenebrionidae) larvae are known as a good food source with high protein, unsaturated fatty acid, minerals. Therefore, it has strong potential to substitute the conventional meat consumption. To utilize T. molitor as a feed, the standard mass-rearing protocol is required. To make standard mass-rearing protocol, we tested different temperature(17.5, 20, 22.5, 25, 27.5 and 30°C) conditions for egg, larvae, pupae and adult T. molitor to identify the optimal rearing condition. Hatching was occurred within 15~32.5°C range. However, 17.5~27.5°C was required to get more than 70 % hatching rete. When the eggs were treated in 22.5~27.5°C, all eggs were hatched within 10 days. As larval development, shorter developmental period, higher pupation and eclosion rates were observed within 25~27.5°C temperature range. In addition, we compared the number of egg, oviposition duration and time required to start egg-laying. The minimum egg-laying(258.40±10.86) was observed at 17.5°C, but the maximum(749.10±7.45) was at 27.5°C. The maximum oviposition duration (137.00±12.73 day (mean±S.D.)) was achieved at 27.5°C, but the minimum (87.50±3.54 day (mean±S.D.)) was at 30°C. The time required to start egg-laying was less than 10 days at 17.5, 27.5, and 30°C. To consider all the factors, we concluded that the optimal temperature is 27.5 °C.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the antimicrobial effects of ε-poly-L-lysine mixture (EPM) on cheon-ggukjang and to determine the optimal mixing ratio in cheonggukjang. Increasing the EPM up to 2% decreased via-ble cell counts at both 15oC and 30oC storage. The pH of cheonggukjang without EPM increased slowly over thestorage periods, but cheonggukjang with EPM showed a slight increasing tendency, with the highest pH at 2% EPM.The sensory scores, such as texture and flavor, were highest in samples containing 2% EPM; however, overall pref-erence was not significantly different when compared to the control. For the optimum cheonggukjang processingconditions, 13 experimental points were selected. Soybean and EPM were chosen as independent variables. Viablecell count, pH, texture, and overall preference were measured. The optimum formulation of cheonggukjang usingthe numerical analysis was found to be 98.52% soybean and 1.48% EPM, resulting in a 0.722 desirability value.

Ascidian embryos have become an important model for embryological studies, offering a simple example for mechanisms of cytoplasmic components segregation. It is a well-known example that the asymmetric segregation of mitochondria into muscle lineage cells occurs during ascidian embryogenesis. However, it is still unclear which signaling pathway is involved in this process. To obtain molecular markers for studying mechanisms involved in the asymmetric distribution of mitochondria, we have produced monoclonal antibodies, Mito-1, Mito-2 and Mito-3, that specifically recognize mitochondriarich cytoplasm in cells of the ascidian Halocynthia roretzi embryos. These antibodies stained cytoplasm like reticular structure in epidermis cells, except for nuclei, at the early tailbud stage. Similar pattern was observed in vital staining of mitochondria with DiOC2, a fluorescent probe of mitochondria. Immunostaining with these antibodies showed that mitochondria are evenly distributed in the animal hemisphere blastomeres at cleavage stages, whereas not in the vegetal hemisphere blastomeres. Mitochondria were transferred to the presumptive muscle and nerve cord lineage cells of the marginal zone in the vegetal hemisphere more than to the presumptive mesenchyme, notochord and endoderm lineage of the central zone. Therefore, it is suggested that these antibodies will be useful markers for studying mechanisms involved in the polarized distribution of mitochondria during ascidian embryogenesis.

In animal development, the mechanisms by which localized factors and organelles in egg cytoplasm were exactly distributed into each daughter cell are essential for formation of various cell types. During ascidian Halocynthia roretzi embryogenesis, ooplasmic mitochondria were mainly segregated into muscle and neural precursor cells. At the 32-cell stage, localized mitochondria in the B6.2 blastomeres were preferentially distributed into the B7.4 muscle precursors compared with the B7.3 mesenchyme/ notochord precursors. When the B6.2 blastomeres were isolated from the early 32-cell stage embryos and then allowed to divide 2 times of cell division, the resultant partial embryos showed symmetric distribution of mitochondria, and the partial embryos were composed of equal size cells. In normal development, cell fates of the B7.3 blastomere were correlated with the unequal cleavage of B6.2 lineage cells that normally occurs in the next two-cell division stages to produce a large B8.5 mesenchyme and a small B8.6 notochord cell. Mitochondria are distributed asymmetrically in both cells. When embryos were treated with FGF receptor inhibitor SU5402 and MEK inhibitor U0126 between the 32-cell and the early 64-cell stages, the resultant embryos showed equal cleavage pattern and symmetric distribution of mitochondria in daughter cells of the B6.2 blastomeres. However, blocking of Nodal and Notch signaling did not affect the cell division pattern and mitochondrial distribution in the B6.2 lineage blastomeres between the 32-cell and 110-cell stages. Therefore, it is likely that FGF/MEK signaling is involved in asymmetric distribution of mitochondria and unequal cleavage of the B6.2 lineage blastomeres in ascidian embryo.

Plant biomass is a huge carbon-complex that has potential as a nutrient. Therefore we extracted and separated useful materials for plant growth from tea leaf and stem. The pre-treatment process including high temperature (200 °C) and pressure (20-40 kgf/cm2) was treated for several minutes and extracted at 120 °C for 30-60 minutes. After that the chemical compositions and ingredients were analyzed from that plantnutrient. As a result of mineral contents, calcium and magnesium concentrations are higher than other minerals. Also the result of carbohydrates analyses has shown that the sugar oligomer consists of xylose(95.3%) and glucose(4.7%), and the sugar monomer consists in the order of xylose (52.7%) > manose (22.8%) > arabinose (10.8%) > galactose (10.2%) > glucose (3.5%). Before applied to field, in vitro plant growth system and formulation were examined. To evaluate the effect of the nutrients, both strawberry green-house and persimmon fields were used in this test. The treated persimmons were heavier than controls scored at 13-22%. In addition, the storageperiod was extended in the treated strawberries. Interestingly in the treated strawberry, the contents of polyphenols were increased (38-57%). These results suggest that the plant-nutrient can afford to help for plant growth and storage, and it can be substituted for other commercial nutrients. In conclusion, this plant-nutrient may help to extend eco-friendly or organic farming in Hadong-gun area.

A new six-rowed naked waxy barley variety, ‘Saehanchal’, was developed by the barley breeding team of the National Institute of Crop Science (NICS), R.D.A. This variety was derived from a cross between ‘SB7803G-BC6-B-B-47-2’ and ‘Suwon262’ in 1989. The fi