It has been known that as oxide layer (ZrO2) forms on the nuclear fuel cladding during irradiation in nuclear power plants, the corrosion kinetics are influenced by various parameters such as chemical environments. One of those environments, crud deposition driven by coolant chemistry has an adverse effect on the formation of oxide (ZrO2) and leads to increase thickness of the layer. In this study, crud formation was performed through loop experiment equipment on the surface of intentionally-made oxide layer (ZrO2) on cladding tubes and then the composition and characteristics of cruds were examined for the investigation of nuclear power plant environment. As a result, various cruds in composition and microstructure were formed depending on the exquisite methods and conditions such as metal ion concentration.

Research and interest in sustainable printing are increasing in the packaging printing industry. Currently, predicting the amount of ink required for each work is based on the experience and intuition of field workers. Suppose the amount of ink produced is more than necessary. In this case, the rest of the ink cannot be reused and is discarded, adversely affecting the company's productivity and environment. Nowadays, machine learning models can be used to figure out this problem. This study compares the ink usage prediction machine learning models. A simple linear regression model, Multiple Regression Analysis, cannot reflect the nonlinear relationship between the variables required for packaging printing, so there is a limit to accurately predicting the amount of ink needed. This study has established various prediction models which are based on CART (Classification and Regression Tree), such as Decision Tree, Random Forest, Gradient Boosting Machine, and XGBoost. The accuracy of the models is determined by the K-fold cross-validation. Error metrics such as root mean squared error, mean absolute error, and R-squared are employed to evaluate estimation models' correctness. Among these models, XGBoost model has the highest prediction accuracy and can reduce 2134 (g) of wasted ink for each work. Thus, this study motivates machine learning's potential to help advance productivity and protect the environment.

Among hemipteran insects which is the most important insect vector of plant viruses, small brown planthopper, Laodelphax striatellus, transmits the rice stripe virus (RSV) causing rice stripe disease. For effective control of RSV, it is important to understand interaction between RSV and L. striatellus. Therefore, in this study, expressed sequence tag (EST) databases were generated based on 454 GS-FLX pyrosequencing for comparative transcriptome analysis between nonviruliferous and RSV-viruliferous L. striatellus. By comparing the two EST libraries, we showed that 108 host genes were significantly up-regulated and 28 host genes were significantly down-regulated in viruliferous insects. Interestingly, genes encoding ribosomal proteins were mainly up-regulated in viruliferous L. striatellus, whereas genes related to translation were concentrated in the downregulated cohort. These RSV-dependently regulated genes may have important function in the behavior of planthopper or the transmission of RSV.

In the transcriptome surveys of Laodelphax striatellus, several cDNA sequences showed a high level of similarities to the insect picorna-like virus genomes. Interestingly, there was no sequence similarity between picorna-like virus sequences from the RSV-viruliferous and those from the non-viruliferous L. striatellus. Picorna-like virus from the non-viruliferous L. striatellus was a geographical isolate of Himetobi P virus (HiPV). The genome of the HiPV was 9,272 nt in length excluding the poly(A) tail and contained two open reading frames (ORFs), which were separated by a 176 nt intergenic region that functions as an internal ribosome entry site (IRES). The 5' ORF encodes the non-structural proteins and the 3' ORF encodes the capsid proteins. The partial genomic RNA of the picorna-like virus from the RSV-viruliferous L. striatellus, LsPV-2, was 8,769 nt in length excluding the poly(A) tail and contained a single, large open reading frame (nt 1–8,535) encoding a 2,845 aa polyprotein. In terms of sequence similarity, identity, and genome organization, LsPV-2 resembled insect picornalike viruses belonging to the family Iflaviridae. A phylogenetic analysis based on RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) sequence showed that LsPV-2 was most closely related to the deformed wing virus (DWV). The HiPV and LsPV-2 were incompatible each other in L. striatellus, suggesting that these two picorna-like viruses may have important functions in transmission of the RSV.

Rice stripe virus (RSV), the type member of the genus Tenuivirus, causes rice stripe disease and the viral transmission is mediated through the sucking by small brown planthopper, Laodelphax striatellus. Considerations have been mainly focused on the protection of rice from RSV and/or the planthopper, rather than the interaction between RSV and the insect. To clarify the interaction, in this work, mRNA was extracted from RSV-viruliferous planthopper with non-viruliferous control, and expressed sequence tag (EST) databases were generated based on 454 GS-FLX pyrosequencing technology for comparative analysis. RSV-viruliferous planthopper had ca. 2500 isotigs, which included genes on biological process (19%), cellular component (13%), molecular function (22%) and no hits (46%) from gene ontology (GO) analysis; this structure was similar to the control. However, in the viruliferous planthopper, 109 isotigs were up-regulated and 660 isotigs were down-regulated, compared to the non-viruliferous control. These RSV-dependently regulated genes may have important function in the behavior of planthopper or the transmission of RSV.

Potato (Solamum tuberosum 'Dejima') plantlets were investigated on culture type and initial quantity of inoculation in bioreactor and survival rate by hydroponics for mass production. rode stems (1 to 1.5cm in length) of potato plantlets multiplied in vitro were grown for 3 weeks in liquid Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with sucrose 30 g L-1. When plantlets (80-node inoculation) were raised in 10L balloon type bubble (BB) bioreactor, the healthiest growth of plantlets was obtained from explants cultured in ebb & flow culture with medium supplied periodically 12 times per day. The suitable inoculation quantity of 20L BB bioreactor was 120 pieces of stem segments (mean 2.2g fresh weight) in ebb & flow culture. Number of nodal shoot was eight on the average. In controlled culture room, survival rate of plantlets at 7 days after stem cutting was above 70% when they were acclimatized by hydroponics grown in deep flow and solid medium culture. The highest survival rate of the stem cutting plantlets was in nutrient solution adjusted to EC 1.4dS·m-1. Stem cutting plantlets through one culture could be obtained 670~900, when plantlets were grown in ebb & flow culture during 3 weeks using a 20L bioreactor with initial 120 pieces of nodal segments. 11 is possible In do mass production of seedlings cultured in bioreactor and hydroponics.

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) seeds have long been clinically used in Korea to promote bone formation and prevent osteoporosis. In addition, the safflower buds (SB) were found to have more useful functional ingredients than safflower seed. Thus, we investigated the preventive effects of SB diet in ovariectomized (OVX) rats. The rats were divided into five groups; sham operated group, OVX alone group, OVX plus 17β-estradiol (E2 10 ㎍/㎏, i.p.) and OVX plus SB diet feeding group (0.3% or 1%). Feeding of SB diet (0.3% or 3%) to OVX rats markedly increased trabecular formation in femur compared to OVX rats. Feeding of SB diet (0.3% or 3%) to OVX rats also decreased TRAP activity compared to OVX rats. These results suggest that SB diets have bone sparing effects by the decrease of osteoclast activity. We also observed that OVX rats fed with SB diet (0.3% or 3%) exhibited the decrease of calcium and phosphorus in serum compared to OVX-induced rats. Therefore, SB may be beneficial for the patients of osteoporosis, especially in postmenopausal women.

Mungbean (Vigna radiata) is a fast-growing, warm-season legume crop that is primarily cultivated in developing countries of Asia. We constructed a draft genome sequence of mungbean to facilitate genome research into the subgenus Ceratotropis and to enable a better understanding of the evolution of leguminous species. The draft genome sequence covers 80% of the estimated genome, of which 50.1% consists of repetitive sequences. In total, 22,427 high confidence protein-coding genes were predicted. Based on the de novo assembly of additional wild mungbean species, the divergence of what was eventually domesticated and the sampled wild mungbean species appears to have predated domestication. Moreover, the de novo assembly of a tetraploid Vigna species (Vigna reflexo-pilosa var. glabra) provided genomic evidence of a recent allopolyploid event. To further study speciation, we compared de novo RNA-seq assemblies of 22 accessions of 18 Vigna species and protein sets of Glycine max and Cajanus cajan. The species tree was constructed by a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo method using highly confident orthologs shared by all 24 accessions. The present assembly of V. radiata var. radiata will facilitate genome research and accelerate molecular breeding of the subgenus Ceratotropis.