This study involved the heterogenization of a binder pitch (BP) using a small amount of nanocarbon to improve physical properties of the resulting graphite electrode (GE). Heterogenization was carried out by adding 0.5–2.0 wt.% platelet carbon nanofiber (PCNF) or carbon black (CB) to a commercial BP. To evaluate the physical properties of the BPs, we designed a new model graphite electrode (MGE) using needle coke as a filler. The heterogenized binder pitch (HBP) with PCNF or CB clearly increased the coking value by 5–13 wt.% compared to that of the as-received BP. Especially, the model graphite electrodes prepared with HBPs containing 1.0 wt.% PCNF or CB showed significantly improved physical properties compared to the control MGE from the as-received BP. Although the model graphite electrodes prepared with HBPs showed similar properties, they had smaller pore sizes than the control. This indicates that heterogenization of the BP can effectively decrease the pore size in the MGE matrix. Correlating the average pore sizes with the physical properties of the model graphite electrodes showed that, for the same porosity, matrices formed by the HBP with a smaller average pore size can effectively improve the apparent density, tensile strength, and oxidation resistance of the model graphite electrodes.

The present study, black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens) fermented using lactic acid bacteria were powdered without defatting and added to 3% or 5% to make pig feed. Weaning piglets were fed 3% (T3) or 5% (T5) feed powdered with Hermetia illucens for 5 months and the efficacy of the feed was investigated. The results of measuring body weight gain over 5 months after adding 3% (T3) or 5% (T5) of Hermetia illucens powder to the feed of weaned piglets showed significant weight gain in the T5 group compared to the control group. The added feed to Hermetia illucens powder did not show toxicity, and analysis of its effect on blood properties showed that white blood cell levels tended to increase in the T3 or T5 group compared to the control group.The only increase in white blood cell count was a change within the normal range. As a result of analyzing the effect of the level of addition of Hermetia illucens powder on feces, the effect of liquid reduction showed excellent results in the T3 treatment group and maintained the best form of feces. In this study, the thawing loss in the control group was 6.66%, and the T3 group with added powder to Hermetia illucens showed a significant decrease of 5.03%, and the T5 group also showed a decrease of 5.61%. Therefore, it was demonstrated that additive feed for Hermetia illucens reduced thawing loss, affected the water holding capacity of meat, and played an important role in maintaining the taste of meat. Moreover, the results of carcass grade showed a tendency for one grade to increase in the T3 and T5 groups fed additive feed to Hermetia illucens compared to the control group. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that feed supplemented with Hermetia illucens is effective in influencing the weight gain of pigs, reducing the liquid content of feces, and increasing carcass grade.

PURPOSES : A model for minimizing cutting loss and determining the optimum layout of blocks in pavements was developed in this study. METHODS : Based on literature review, a model which included constraints such as the amount, volume, overlap, and pattern, was developed to minimize the cutting loss in an irregular pavement shape. The Stach bond, stretcher bond, and herringbone patterns were used in this model. The harmony search and particle swarm algorithms were then used to solve this model. RESULTS : Based on the results of the model and algorithms, the harmony search algorithm yielded better results because of its fast computation time. Moreover, compared to the sample pavement area, it reduced the cutting loss by 20.91%. CONCLUSIONS : The model and algorithms successfully optimized the layout of the pavement and they have potential applications in industries, such as tiling, panels, and textiles.

Ammonia is considered a promising hydrogen carrier due to its high hydrogen density and liquefaction temperature. Considering that the energy efficiency generally decreases as chemical conversion is repeated, it is more efficient to directly use ammonia as a fuel for fuel cells. However, catalysts in direct ammonia fuel cells have the critical issues of sluggish ammonia oxidation reaction (AOR) rate and poisoning of reaction intermediates. In particular, the use of precious metal as cathodic catalysts has been limited due to ammonia crossover and poisoning. In this study, we introduce Fe-based single-atom catalysts with selective activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) even in the presence of ammonia. As the Fe content increased, the single-atom structure of the catalysts changed into Fe nanoparticles or carbides. Among our Fe–N–C catalysts, FeNC-50 with a Fe loading amount of 0.34 wt% showed the highest ORR performance regardless of the ammonia concentration. In particular, the difference in activity between the catalysts increased as the concentration increased. The FeNC-50 catalyst showed remarkable stability after 1000 cycles. Therefore, we believe that single-atom dispersion is an important factor in the development of stable non-precious catalysts with high activity and inactivity for the ORR and AOR, respectively.

This study deals with replacement analysis of deteriorated equipment for improving productivity of production system. Frequent breakdown of the deteriorated equipment causes a situation that reduces productivity such as low product quality, process delay, and repair cost. However, the replacement of new equipment will be required a high initial investment cost, so it is important to analysis the economic feasibility. Therefore, we analyze the effect of the production system due to the aging effect of the equipment and the feasibility of equipment replacement based on the economic analysis. The process flow, working time, logistics movement, etc. are analyzed in order to build the simulation modeling for a ship and land switchboard production system. Using numerical examples, the economic feasibility analysis of equipment replacement through replacement of existing deteriorated equipment and additional arrangement of new facilities is performed.

Colon cancer has been considered a leading cause of cancer-associated death. Folic acid is a vitamin necessary for cellular physiological functions and cell viability. However, the association between folic acid intake and colon cancer has been examined in several prospective cohort studies are controversial. This study investigated the effects of folate intake on colon carcinogenesis and oxidative stress in an azoxymethane (AOM)/dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) institute for cancer research (ICR) mouse model. Thirty male ICR mice (5 weeks old) were divided into the control group and the experimental group supplied 0.03% folic acid via drinking water (50 mL/week/mouse) for 6 weeks. To induce colonic pre-neoplastic lesions, the animals were subcutaneously injected three times weekly with AOM (10 mg/kg body weight), followed by 2% DSS in drinking water for a week. Folic acid supplementation significantly suppressed the total number of aberrant crypt foci and aberrant crypts. Histological image data showed that folic acid supplementation attenuated neoplastic change. In addition, we measured the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances concentration of dry feces samples to identify the effect of folic acid on reactive oxygen accumulation. The folic acid supplementation group had reduced reactive oxygen species levels in dry feces compared to the control group. In conclusion, these findings indicate that folic acid suppresses colon carcinogenesis and oxidative stress in an AOM/DSS mouse model.

There is a growing global interest in food choices that could affect health. Consumer food choices are dictated by numerous factors such as attitudes, beliefs, desires and preferences stemming from psychological and physiological attributes. The present study aimed to understand consumers’ internal perceptions about cream soup, cream sauce, and tomato sauce using ZMET (Zaltman’s Metaphor Elicitation Technique). The 9 step ZMET interview process was conducted for a sample of 36 consumers (12 consumers for each sauce). A content analysis of the survey results was carried out. From this, 56 concepts of cream soup were derived, and 15 constructs that met with the agreement of more than one-third of the total sample consumers were extracted. These 15 constructs included ‘Soft’, ‘Recollection’, ‘Familiar’, ‘Warm’, ‘Comfortable’, etc. Similarly, for cream sauce, 67 concepts and 20 constructs ‘Silky’, ‘Warm’, ‘Restaurant’, ‘Family’, ‘Memory’, etc. were deduced. A total of 66 concepts and 20 constructs for tomato sauce ‘Sourness’, ‘Sauce Bottle’, ‘Pleasant’, ‘Ingredient’, ‘Cooking’, etc. were derived. The analysis of consumers’ consensus maps through this study provides a deep and useful understanding of consumers and their latent needs. Also, the results of this study indicate that exploring consumers’ internal perceptions is critical to understanding their healthy food choices. This can be used as basic data for formulating marketing strategies.

To solve the problem of raw milk surplus, the Korean government encouraged the farmstead milk processing industry. However, the hygiene of farmstead dairy products has not been evaluated. Therefore, the microbiological analysis of farmstead cheeses was performed in this study. Farmstead cheeses (Berg, Colby, Cottage, Gouda, Mozzarella, String, Tilsiter, and Quark) were purchased from 16 dairy farms. In qualitative analysis, the presence of foodborne pathogens (Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Campylobacter spp.) were examined. Also, total aerobic bacteria, Pseudomonas spp., coliform, and E. coli, and yeast/mold were enumerated. Seventeen samples (37.8%) of 45 farmstead cheeses were contaminated with B. cereus and the highest detection rate was observed in String cheese. Two samples (4.4%) were E. coli positive and seven samples (15.6%) were S. aureus positive. Four other foodborne pathogens were not detected in all farmstead cheeses. Also, the mean levels of total aerobic bacteria, coliform, E. coli, and yeast/mold were 4.3 Log CFU/g, 1.4 Log CFU/g, 1.1 Log CFU/g, and 3.8 Log CFU/g, respectively. These results indicate that the food safety of farmstead cheese is extremely poor and, thus, the hygiene management of farmstead cheese should be improved to provide safe farmstead cheese to consumers.

In the present study, we investigated the expression patterns of p63, a member of the p53 gene family, in hair follicle cells at different stages of the hair cycle and examined the relation with cell proliferation activity. For this study, immunohistochemistry for p63 and Ki-67, a marker of cell proliferation, was performed in skin obtained from C3H/he mice with depilation. In the anagen stage, p63 was strongly expressed in the cells of bulge areas and epithelial strand, matrix cells of the hair bulbs and outer root sheath cells, but inner root sheath cells and dermal papilla cells were negative for p63. These expression patterns of p63 were similarly noted in hair follicles in the early catagen stage. In the late catagen and telogen stages of hair follicles, outer root sheath cells, seboblasts and duct cells were immunoreactive for p63. On the other hand, Ki-67-positive cells were selectively observed among the p63 positive cell components, although p63 positive cells were not always proliferative. Most of the matrix cells in the hair bulbs were positive for Ki-67. Ki-67-positive cells were also frequently evident in the cells of epithelial strands in the early anagen stage. Outer root sheath cells were often positive for Ki-67 in the anagen and early catagen stages, but very rare in the late catagen and telogen stages. In summary, p63 was expressed in the bulge stem cells, epithelial strand cells, matrix cells and outer root sheath cells of hair follicles at any stage of the cycle, which was associated with the movement of hair progenitor cells for regeneration. Ki-67-positive cells were evident among the p63-expressing cell components. Our results strongly suggest that p63 plays an important role in stem cell regulation, at least associated with cell proliferation, for the regeneration of hair follicles.

We performed a survey for flavivirus infection and distribution of Aedes albopictus that known as Zika and Dengue virus vector using black–light trap and BG-sentinel trap around urban area in Korea. Mosquitoes were collected in 27 cities during March to November (twice a month) year 2016. Total numbers of mosquitoes collected 102,102 including 19 species 8 genera during collecting period. Total 21,467 Ae. albopictus was collected that 20,961(24.3%) by BG-sentinel trap and 506 (3.2%) by Black-light trap in urban area. Trap index(trap/night) of Ae. albopictus was showed highest in Hamyang (TI:992.3) and lowest in Taebaek (TI:0.3) there was only collected by Black-light trap. A total of 894 pools from all collecting Ae. albopictus were performed a Flavivirus detection. Flavivirus was not detected during study period. This study may provide basic information for surveillance of imported diseases (include Zika virus) and vectors in Korea.

Ixodid ticks are notorious as the vector of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) in Korea. To confirm the transovarial transmission of SFTSV, we collected blood-fed adult ticks from animals in SFTS case reported area of Jeju island in 2015. A total of 476 ticks were collected from four host animal species, horse (81.3%), dog (9.0%), roe deer (7.1%) and wild boar (2.5%). They were identified as 1 genus and 2 species, Haemaphysalis longicornis (87.8%) and H. flava (12.2%). Among them, 131 adults hatched their eggs successfully. The body weight of females was highly correlated with the number of egg masses laid (P < 0.05). We confirmed that one adult H. flava was infected with SFTSV and its infection rate was 0.77%. The eggs of the SFTSV-infected adults also were infected with SFTSV and its transovarial transmission was confirmed. This result suggests that the parent generation of H. flava could transmit SFTSV transovarially into their F1 progeny and H. flava might be one of major vectors of SFTSV in Korea.