The topographical effect on a strong wind event that occurred on 7 January 2013 at King Sejong Station (KSJ), Antarctica, was investigated using the Polar Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Numerical experiments applying three different terrain heights of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) were performed to quantitatively estimate the topographical effect on the selected strong wind event. The experiment employing original AP topography successfully represented the observed features in the strong wind event, both in terms of peak wind speed (by ~94%; ~19.7 m/s) and abrupt transitions of wind speed. In contrast, the experiment with a flattened terrain height significantly underestimated the peak wind speeds (by ~51%; ~10.4 m/s) of the observations. An absence of AP topography failed to simulate both a strong discontinuity of sea-level pressure fields around the east coast of the AP and a strong south-easterly wind over the AP. As a result, the observed downslope windstorm, driven by a flow overriding a barrier, was not formed at the western side of the AP, resulting in no further enhancement of the wind at KSJ. This result demonstrates that the topography of the AP played a critical role in driving the strong wind event at KSJ on 7 January 2013, accounting for ~50% of the total wind speed.

Yarn-type supercapacitors should have high energy density in small given spaces, and the one attempt among many is to comprise the electrodes asymmetrically. However, the low capacitance of conventional materials causes the widened operating voltage useless. In this study, we have utilized a novel material MXene with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to make highly loaded MXene/CNT yarn electrodes, which exhibited a remarkable areal capacitance. With MnO2/CNT biscrolled cathode and PVA/LiCl gel electrolyte, the plied asymmetric yarn supercapacitor had energy density of 100 µWh/cm2. The yarn supercapacitor could operate under mechanical deformations without performance degradation.

It has not been well established whether dietary folate intake reduces the risk of diabetes development. We aimed to clarify the prospective association between dietary folate intake and type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk among 7333 Korean adults aged 40 years or older who were included in the Multi-Rural Communities Cohort. Dietary folate intake was estimated from all 106 food items listed on a FFQ, not including folate intake from supplements. Two different measurements of dietary folate intake were used: the baseline consumption and the average consumption from baseline until just before the end of follow-up. The association between folate intake and T2D risk was determined through a modified Poisson regression model with a robust error estimator controlling for potential confounders. For 29 745 person years, 319 cases of diabetes were ascertained. In multivariable analyses, dietary folate intake was inversely associated with risk of T2D for women, not for men. For women, the incidence rate ratio of diabetes in the third tertile compared with the first tertile was 0·57 (95 % CI 0·38–0·87, Pfor trend=0·0085) in the baseline consumption model and 0·64 (95 % CI 0·43–0·95, Pfor trend=0·0244) in the average consumption model. These inverse associations was found in both normal fasting blood glucose group and impaired fasting glucose group among women. Among non-users of multinutrients and vitamin supplements, the significant inverse association remained. Thus, higher dietary intake of folate is prospectively associated with lower risk of diabetes for women.

We report on the formation of highly flexible and transparent TiO2/Ag/ITO multilayer films deposited on polyethylene terephthalate substrates. The optical and electrical properties of the multilayer films were investigated as a function of oxide thickness. The transmission window gradually shifted toward lower energies with increasing oxide thickness. The TiO2 (40 nm)/Ag (18 nm)/ITO (40 nm) films gave the transmittance of 93.1% at 560 nm. The relationship between transmittance and oxide thickness was simulated using the scattering matrix method to understand high transmittance. As the oxide thickness increased from 20 to 50 nm, the carrier concentration gradually decreased from 1.08 × 1022 to 6.66 × 1021 cm−3, while the sheet resistance varied from 5.8 to 6.1 Ω/sq. Haacke's figure of merit reached a maximum at 40 nm and then decreased with increasing oxide thickness. The change in resistance for the 60 nm-thick ITO single film rapidly increased with increasing bending cycles, while that of the TiO2/Ag/ITO (40 nm/18 nm/40 nm) film remained virtually unchanged during the bending test.

Blackberry is a fruiting berry species with very high nutrient contents. With the recent increasing consumer demand for blackberries, new sources of germplasm and breeding techniques are required to improve blackberry production. This study was carried out to evaluate the genetic diversity (GD) and relationship among 55 blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) mutants derived from γ-ray treatment (52 lines) and N-methyl-N′-nitrosourea (MNU) treatment (three lines) using an inter-simple sequence repeat marker. A total of 18 bands were amplified with an average of 3.6 bands per primer. Among them, eight bands were identified to be polymorphic with a rate of 44.4%. In addition, the GD information content values were highest in the 60 Gy treatment population and the GD values were higher in the γ-ray treatment populations than in the MNU treatment population. According to a cluster analysis, all the mutant lines can be classified into five categories, and the genetic distance was greatest between the 80 Gy-irradiated population and other populations. These results indicate that mutant lines have high GD and can be effectively utilized for improving blackberry breeding.

Mutation breeding techniques have been used to induce new genetic variations and improve agronomic traits in soybean. In Korea, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has unique radiation facilities to induce plant mutations and has been conducting soybean mutation breeding programmes since the mid-1960s. Until now, the KAERI has developed five soybean mutant cultivars exhibiting early maturity, high yield and seed-coat colour change. In this paper, we review these five mutant cultivars in terms of how to successfully induce unique agronomic characteristics through mutation breeding programmes. A number of induced mutants exhibiting null lipoxygenase enzymes, altered protein patterns or Kunitz trypsin inhibitor activity could serve as genetic resources for the genetic analysis of target genes, and one mutant population has been developed for a reverse genetic study.

Liquorice is one of the botanicals used frequently as a traditional medicine in the West and in the East. Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB is involved in the development of CVD by inducing abnormal proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells. In our preliminary study, dehydroglyasperin C (DGC), an active compound of liquorice, showed strong antioxidant activity. Since phytochemicals with antioxidant activities showed beneficial effects on chronic inflammatory diseases, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of DGC on PDGF-induced proliferation and migration of human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMC). Treatment of HASMC with DGC for 24 h significantly decreased PDGF-induced cell number and DNA synthesis in a dose-dependent manner without any cytotoxicity, as demonstrated by the 3-(4,5-dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide test and thymidine incorporation. Upon cell cycle analysis, DGC blocked the PDGF-induced progression through the G0/G1 to S phase of the cell cycle, and down-regulated the expression of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK); 2, cyclin E, CDK4 and cyclin D1. Furthermore, DGC significantly attenuated PDGF-stimulated phosphorylation of PDGF receptor-β, phospholipase C-γ1, AKT and extracellular-regulated kinase 1/2, and DGC inhibited cell migration and the dissociation of actin filaments by PDGF. In a rat vascular balloon injury model, DGC suppressed an excessive reduction in luminal diameters and neointimal formation compared with the control group. These results demonstrate the mechanistic basis for the prevention of CVD and the potential therapeutic properties of DGC.

The electroluminescent characteristics of blue organic light-emitting diodes(BOLEDs) were fabricated with single emitting layer using host-dopant system and doped charge carrier transport layers. The structure of the high efficiency BOLED device was; NPB(600Å)/NPB:BCzVBi-7%(100Å)/ADN:BCzVBi-7%(300Å)/BAlq:BCzVBi-7%(100Å)/BAlq(200Å)/Liq(20Å)/Al(1200Å) to optimize probability of exciton generation by doping BCzVBi in emitting layer and hole/electron transport layers(HTL/ETL) as well. Luminance and luminous efficiency of BOLED doped BCzVBi in EML and HTL/ETL improved from 10090 cd/m2 at 9.5V and 6.44 cd/A at 4.0V to 13190 cd/m2 at 9.5V and 7.64 cd/A at 4.0V about 30% and 18%, respectively, with CIE coordinates of (0.14, 0.17) comparing to BOLED doped BCzVBi in EML only

In this study, we fabricated blue OLEDs with quantum well structure (QWS) using four different blue emissive materials such as DPVBi, ADN and DPASN, and BAlq as QWS material. Conventional QWS blue OLEDs used to be composed of emissive layer and charge blocking layer with lower HOMO-LUMO energy level, but we designed triple emitting layer for more significant hole-electron recombination in EML and a wider region of exciton generation as forming QWS spontaneously. The structure of triple emitting layered blue OLED is ITO / NPB(700 Å) / X(100 Å) / BAlq(100 Å) /X (100 Å) / Bphen(300 Å) / Liq(20 Å) / Al(1200 Å) (X= DPVBi, ADN, DPASN). HOMO-LUMO energy levels of DPVBi, ADN, DPASN and BAlq were 2.8-5.9, 2.6-5.6, 2.3-5.2 and 2.9-5.9 eV, respectively. The maximum luminous efficiency was 5.32 cd/A at 3.5 V in a blue OLED with DPASN / BAlq / DPASN QWS.

Platinum (Pt) nanoparticles were synthesized on tin dioxide (SnO2) nanowires by applying γ-ray radiolysis. The growth behavior of Pt nanoparticles was systematically investigated as a function of precursor concentration, illumination intensity and exposure time of the γ-rays. We found that these processing parameters greatly influenced the growth behavior of Pt nanoparticles in terms of size and formation density. Vapor-phase-grown SnO2 nanowires were uniformly covered with Pt nanoparticles by the radiolysis process. The Pt nanoparticle-functionalized SnO2 nanowires were tested as sensors for detecting reductive gases including carbon monoxide, toluene, and benzene. The results indicate that the γ-ray radiolysis is an efficient way of functionalizing the surface of oxide nanowires with catalytic Pt nanoparticles.

We report the microstructures and dielectric properties of Ca1-xSrxCu3Ti4O12 (C1-xSxCTO, 0≤x≤1) ceramics sintered at the various sintering temperatures ranging from 1000 to 1060˚C in air. The linear increase in lattice parameter in C1-xSxCTO (0≤x≤1) ceramics is observable for the full range of substitution. However, the second phases of SrTiO3 and CuO start to occur from the composition of x=0.8, implying that a stoichiometric SrCu3Ti4O12 (SCTO) compound may not exist. While the C0.6S0.4CTO and C0.4S0.6CTiO samples exhibit relatively lower dielectric constant (εr) of ∼40,000 below 1 kHz, the CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) and SCTO show the extremely high εr values of ~120,000 and ∼180,000, respectively. Complex impedance (Z*) and modulus (M*) spectroscopy revealed that the capacitance (C) and resistivity (ρ) values of grain boundary in all samples are much higher than those of grains.

Glyceollins, one family of phytoalexins, are de novo synthesised from daidzein in the soyabean upon exposure to some types of fungus. The efficiency of glyceollin production appears to be influenced by soyabean variety, fungal species, and the degree of physical damage to the soyabean. The compounds have been shown to have strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, and to inhibit the proliferation and migration of human aortic smooth muscle cells, suggesting their potential to prevent atherosclerosis. It has also been reported that glyceollins have inhibited the growth of prostate and breast cancer cells in xenograft animal models, which is probably due to their anti-oestrogenic activity. In essence, glyceollins deserve further animal and clinical studies to confirm their health benefits.