Climate change has led to increased insect pests and pest distribution changes. Traditionally, chemical control using synthetic pesticides has been the main method for pest management, but the emergence of pesticide-resistant pests has become a problem. There is a need to develop new pest control agents to overcome these issues. Entomopathogenic fungi used in pest management have minimal environmental side effects and possess a mechanism of action distinct from that of synthetic pesticides. However, there is a need for the development of technologies to maximize the insecticidal effects of fungi against pests, and expressing and releasing dsRNA within the fungi can preemptively knock out the activation of the insect’s defense system, thereby enhancing the insecticidal effect. Controlling insect defense genes and using entomopathogenic fungi as bio-carriers forms a new pest management strategy. This approach, described as a “microbial insecticide agents development strategy of cassette concept, ” can versatilely modify genes and microbes. It is expected to overcome the limitations of synthetic pesticides.

Since rice is the main food in Korea, there are no regulations on corn milling yet. Corn is known as one of the world's top three food crops along with wheat and rice, and it is known that 3.5 billion people worldwide use corn for food. In addition, corn mills are not developed or sold in Korea, but the use of corn mills is increasing significantly in many countries in Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, as Korea's rice mill import increases, Korea's KAMICO (Korea Agricultural Machinery Industry Cooperative) and domestic company A agreed to develop a corn mill jointly with PHilMech, an organization affiliated with the Philippine Ministry of Agriculture. However, research on corn milling was very insignificant, so the development was carried out based on the technology of Korea's rice mill. Rice milling is performed by peeling off the skin of rice and producing brown or white rice, so it is carried out by removing the skin and cutting the skin. On the other hand, in the corn mill, the skin of the corn is peeled, pulverized and selected to produce main products suitable for edible use. Therefore, in order to develop a corn mill, processes such as peeling, transfer, grinding, sorting, and by-product separation are required, and suitable parts must be developed. In addition, the performance must be gradually improved through experiments in which corn is repeatedly milled. The Philippines produces 7.98 million tons/year of corn, which is about 100 times that of Korea, and is mostly consumed as a staple food. This is about 10% of the total crop production in the Philippines. In addition, the main cultivation complexes of corn are the mountainous regions of Tarlac or Pangasinan, and the produced corn is 72.4% of the so-called yellow corn called Arabel and Sarangani, and the remaining 27.6% are known as white corn. In this study, it was intended to produce grains of 2.5 mm or less suitable for food for yellow corn and to develop a corn mill for 200 kg per hour. Detailed conditions for development are stipulated as more than 55% of the main product recovery rate, more than 31% of the by-product recovery rate, less than 5% of the raw material loss rate, and more than 80% of the embryo dislocation rate. In this study, to achieve this, the overall process of the corn mill was developed, and the optimal conditions for the corn mill were obtained through the development of parts and empirical tests to improve performance. In addition, it was intended to achieve the development goal by evaluating and analyzing the performance of each part so that it did not conflict.

During the decommissioning of nuclear power plant (NPP), massive amount of concrete wastes is generated, which are non-radioactive and radioactive. The concrete is a representative construction material which affords reliable structural stability, good formability, and trustful integrity. Also, its reasonable neutron absorbing property allows the various application for many components, including building construction material, bio-shield concrete, etc. Due to the noted aspects of concrete, the radiological concrete characterization is classified as an important process for development of effective strategy for concrete management, in terms of process management and financial control during the decommissioning. The characterization of bio-shield concrete is important in waste management. The understanding and characterization of activation depth is essential for the determination of waste management strategy, classification of bio-shield concrete, and process development of decommissioning. On the other hand, concrete for construction application requires the evaluation of surface contamination of them. The concrete for containment building and its structure is rarely activated, but surface contaminated. In this paper, the reactor data from representative PWR reactors in the US is studied. The experience on Yankee Rowe, Maine Yankee, and Connecticut Yankee NPPs are systematically studied. The Yankee Rowe was a 4-loop PWR of Westinghouse design with 185 MWe. The Main Yankee was a 3- loop PWR of Combustion Engineering design with 864 MWe. The Connecticut Yankee was a 4-loop Westinghouse type with 560 MWe. The characterization studies on bio-shield concrete will be discussed in this paper, including activation depth, primary nuclides, etc.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, which was caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, is of great concern to the Korean people. The scope of interest is wide and diverse, from the nuclear accident itself and the damage situation, to the current situation in Fukushima Prefecture and Japan, and to the safety of Japanese agricultural and fishery products. Concerns about nuclear safety following the Fukushima nuclear accident have a significant impact on neighboring nation’s energy policy. It has been 11 years since the Fukushima nuclear accident. In neighboring nation society, the nature and extent of damage caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident, the feasibility of follow-up measures at home and abroad, the impact on neighboring nations, and the direction of nuclear policy reflecting the lessons of the accident are hotly debated topics. Recently, the controversy has grown further as it is intertwined with Japan’s concerns about the safety and discharge of the contaminated water into the sea, and conflicts over domestic nuclear power policies. About 1.29 million tons, as of March 24, 2022, of the contaminated water are generated, which is close to the 1.37 million tons of water storage capacity. In response, the Japanese government announced on April 13, 2021, that it plans to discharge the contaminated water into the sea from 2023. This study evaluates the amount of the contaminated water that has passed through the ALPS and reviews the preparations and related facilities for ocean discharge after diluting the contaminated water. In addition, it is intended to forecast the various impacts of ocean discharge.

Numerous nuclear power plants that had been built in the late 20th century have entered the aging phase and are scheduled to be decommissioned. The decommissioning project of a commercial nuclear power plant is an array of complex processes involving the activities of site characterization, decontamination, dismantling, and site restoration. Hence, a number of essential factors, such as scheduling, work progress, and staffing, should be taken into account while the decommissioning plan is drafted and modified. Guidances on managerial and social aspects of decommissioning have been rare as compared to those of technical viewpoints. Nonetheless, the nuclear industry in the US has presented no little amount of experience on their decommissioning projects dealing with those perspectives. Thus, three sets of the case study were conducted to obtain useful lessons learned. The Maine Yankee nuclear power plant initially acquired 40 years of the operating license, it was in operation for only 25 years from 1972 until 1996. The owner group decided to shut down because of the deterioration of the profitability in 1997. The case of the Maine Yankee project enlightened the importance of the contract management and stakeholder relations. The Rancho Seco nuclear power plant is a single-unit nuclear power reactor site with 913 MWe output that commenced commercial operation in 1975. The Rancho Seco that had become the first-ever reactor shut down by a public voting introduced several innovative approaches for the decommissioning, some of which turned out to be very successful. The SONGS 1 commenced the commercial operation in 1968 and had been decided to cease its operation permanently due to a steep decline in profitability in 1992. The SONGS 1 presented worthwhile lessons in terms of project management. In this study, several lessons learned related on managerial, engineering, and regulatory/social aspects considered during the NPP decommissioning will be reviewed and discussed.

In this study, the effects of heat-moisture treatment (boiling or steaming for 45 min) prior to hot air drying (70 o C for 8 h) on water activity (Aw), moisture (MC), Brix, color, and texture of dried sweet potato slices were investigated to identify the best pretreatment condition for producing dried sweet potato with the best eating quality. Dried sweet potato slices pretreated by boiling (BL) showed significantly lower Aw, MC, and hardness while Brix was significantly higher than with steaming (ST) treatment. There were no significant differences for the color, springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, and brittleness indexes. At 8 h drying, the Aw, MC, Brix, and hardness of the BL and ST samples were 0.81 and 0.82, 19.71% and 25.53%, 53.80% and 49.40%, and 20.49 kg/cm 2 and 31.98 kg/ cm 2 , respectively. This information will be useful for manufacturers in the production of dried sweet potato slices. These findings provide evidence of the feasibility of heat-moisture treatments in the production of dried sweet potato.

We determined the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the jewel beetle, Chrysochroa fulgidissima (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) from two overlapping fragments and subsequent sub fragments. The 15,592-bp long C. fulgidissima mitogenome contains gene arrangement and content identical to the most common arrangement found in insects. Most individual C. fulgidissima mitochondrial (mt) genes were well within the range found in the respective genes of other insects. The 875-bp A+T-rich region is shortest among the coleopteran mitogenomes sequenced in their entirety. The region is interesting in that it contains several stem-and-loop structures and tRNA-like structure found in the A+T-rich regions of other insect mitogenomes. As seen in other insect motogenomes the start codon of C. fulgidissima COI gene also is unusual because no typical start codon is available. Three of the 13 protein-coding genes have incomplete termination codon T or TA. All tRNA formed stable stem-and-loop structure, except for tRNASer(AGN), the DHU arm of which formed a simple loop as seen in many other metazoan mt tRNASer(AGN).

To understand geographic genetic variation of the species and relationships among populations of the bumble bee, Bombus ardens, we sequenced a portion of mitochondrial COI gene, which corresponds to "DNA Barcode" region (658 bp) from 101 B. ardens individuals collected over 11 localities in Korea. The sequence data were used to investigate genetic diversity within populations and species, geographic variation within species, phylogeographic relationship among populations, and phylogenetic relationship among haplotypes. A total of nine haplortpes were found, but they very close to each other (a maximum sequence divergence of 0. 304%). Summarized, overall moderate to low genetic diversity within populations and species was characteristic, concordant with the high potential to disperse of B. ardens in Korea. There was no clear regional subdivision was observed and relatively high rate of gene flow among localities and low FST was characteristic.

The study aimed to evaluate the usability of sterile bag collection (SBC) urinalysis and urine culture for diagnosing urinary tract infections (UTI). Urine culture is key for diagnosing UTI, and transurethral catheterization (TUC) or suprapubic aspiration is recommended for non-toilet-trained children. Although urine testing using SBC is non-invasive and easy, UTI can be diagnosed only if other criteria including clinical symptoms and positive urinalysis results are met. This study included 228 infants who were hospitalized for unexplained fever from October 2015 to June 2016. TUC culture, SBC urinalysis, and urine culture were performed for all patients. UTI was diagnosed when the TUC culture results met the criterion of ≥104 colony-forming units (CFU)/mL. When UTI diagnosis was made based on SBC urine colony counts ≥105 CFU/mL, the false-positive and false-negative rates were 6.3% and 70.0%, respectively. When the criterion was set as ≥104 CFU/mL, they were 23.7% and 30.0%, respectively. When both the criteria of ≥105 CFU/mL and positive urinalysis results were met, the false-positive rate was 2.4%, and the false-negative rate was 80%. Our results suggest that diagnosing UTI using SBC urinalysis and urine culture is not useful in infants with unexplained fever.

Background : Recently, ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer.) berry has been used as a health-promoting supplements. Also, Mulberries (Morus alba L.) fruit have been used in traditional herbal medicine to treat and prevent diabetes. In this study, we measured the cytotoxicity after fermentation of the extracts in Panax Ginseng Berry and Mulberry Fruit. Methods and Results : The extracts were prepared by decoction for 3 hours in distilled water (100 g/L). The dried extract was then dissolved in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) in preparation for use. Cell viability was examined by an MTT assay. RAW 264.7 cells were seeded at 1 × 104/mL densities in 96-well plates. Each grouping had a non-treated group as the control. The extracts were added to each well and incubated for 24 hours at 37°C and 5% CO2. The MTT solutions (5 mg/mL) were added to each well, and the cells were cultured for another 2 hours. The supernatant was then discarded, and 100 μL of dimethyl sulfoxide was added to each well. The optical density was read at 540 nm. Conclusion : Probiotics and prebiotics modulate the composition of human and domestic animal gut microbiota. The beneficial effects may result from suppression of harmful microorganisms or stimulation of organisms which contribute in a positive way to the nutrition and health of human and domestic animal. Recently, fermentation using microorganisms for the production of more effective compounds has been extensively studied. In particular, the novel pharmacological effects of a new compound generated by fermentation have been reported. Some previous studies have demonstrated that Fermented herbal medicine extract showed better bioactivity than normal herbal Plants extract when used at the same concentration.

Cryopreservation has been known as an efficient method for long-term preservation of clonally propagated plants, and several cryopreservation methods have been developed. Among them, a droplet-vitrification method for potato using axillary shoot tips in vitro has been established previously. In this study, we have optimized the procedure in which explants were submitted to a step-wise pre-culture in liquid sucrose-enriched medium (0.3 and 0.7 M for 7 and 17 h, respectively). The pre-cultured explants were dehydrated with PVS3 (w/v, 50% glycerol + 50% sucrose) for 90 min or modified PVS2 vitrification solution (w/v, 37.5% glycerol + 15% DMSO + 15.0% ethylene glycol + 22.5% sucrose) for 30 min. This two dehydration solutions produced post-cryopreservation regeneration percentages of 57.2% and 80.9%, respectively. We also compared a new post-culture medium (0.1 mg L ･ -1 GA3, 0.1 mg L ･ -1 kinetin) with the conventional one (0.15 mg L ･ -1 IAA, 0.2 mg L ･ -1 zeatin, 0.05 mg L ･ -1 GA3); the shooting initiation rates were 80.9% and 43.5%, respectively. The results suggest that the modified droplet-vitrification protocol described in this study is more effective, easier to implement, and more economical than the droplet-vitrification protocols currently used for potato.

A new cultivar of Rosa hybrida “Orange Flash” was selected from the progenies of a cross between “Lora” and “Timeless” at the Gyeonggi-Do Agricultural Research and Extension Services in 2000. It was finally selected in 2004 after investigation of the characteristics for three years (2002-2004). “Orange Flash” was developed for a standard type cut flower. The major characteristics of “Orange Flash” are 107stems/m2/year in yield, 24.8 in petal number and 10.9 days in vase life. The cultivar was applied for a variety protection in 2005, and was released to commercial growers in 2006.

A new cultivar of Rosa hybrida “Pink Flash” was selected from the progenies of a cross between “Red Sandra” and “Neon” at the Gyeonggi-Do Agricultural Research and Extension Services in 2000. It was finally selected in 2004 after investigation of the characteristics for three years (2002-2004). “Pink Flash” was developed for a standard cut flower. The major characteristics of “Pink Flash” are 132stems/m2/year in yield, 57.7 in petal number and 8.0 days in vase life. The cultivar was applied for a variety protection in 2005 and was released to commercial growers in 2006.