Technology innovation & green policy in Korea

The new growth engine in the 21stcentury depends on an innovative system to create, distribute and apply knowledge to industrialization processes. The industrial technology has been developed rapidly with the progress of knowledge based information in the last decade. In this point of view a cooperative partnership between industry and academy becomes much more important and necessary. Strategically fostering such cooperations and promoting rapid technology development have been reached with industrial clusterization in the last 20 years in Korea. --

An Unknown World: The Academic Experiences of Korean Immigrant Students at Two Universities in Toronto, Canada

Although the participation of immigrant students from diverse cultural backgrounds continues to increase in Canadian universities, there is still a lack of a good understanding of their experiences. This study compared the experiences of nine Korean immigrant students in the sciences and social sciences at two Toronto-based universities and the support resources they utilized. Using Reason’s (2009) persistence framework, different aspects of student experiences, including the transition from high school to university and their academic studies, were examined through semi-structured focus groups and interviews. Research participants commonly had difficulties adjusting to Canadian universities and encountered linguistic difficulties throughout their lecture participation and assessment completion that hindered their persistence toward their goal of graduation. The participants varied in the difficulties they encountered with the disciplinary natures of the sciences and social sciences throughout their studies. The participants developedstrategies of audio-recording lectures, reaching out to their peers and teaching staff, and using online resources to overcome the challenges. Differences in participant experiences between the two universities appeared regarding Korean student groups, which they found as the most beneficial source of support. Suggestions are made to better support the experiences of immigrant students inCanadian universities.Bien que la participation d’étudiants immigrants de divers contextes culturels continue d’augmenter dans les universités canadiennes, il y a toujours un manque de compréhension de leurs expériences. Cette étude compare les expériences de neuf étudiants immigrants d’origine coréenne inscrits dans des programmes de sciences et de sciences sociales dans deux universités à Toronto et les ressources de soutien qu’ils ont utilisées. À l’aide du cadre de persévérance de Reason (2009), différents aspects de l’expérience des étudiants, y compris leur transition du secondaire à l’université et leurs études universitaires, ont été examinés au moyen de groupes de discussionsemi-structurés et d’entrevues. Les participants à la recherche ont généralement eu des difficultés à s’adapter aux universités canadiennes et ont rencontré des difficultés linguistiques tout au long de leur participation aux cours et aux évaluations. Cela a nui à leur persévérance vers leur objectif d’obtenir leur diplôme. Les participants ont rencontré des difficultés variées selon leur domaine d’études tout au long de celles-ci. Ils et elles ont utilisé des stratégies telles que l’enregistrement audio des cours magistraux, la communication avec leurs pairs et enseignants et l’utilisation de ressources en ligne pour surmonter ces défis. Des différences dans les expériencesdes participants entre les deux universités sont apparues concernant les groupes d’étudiants coréens, qu’ils ont trouvés comme étant la source de soutien la plus bénéfique. Nous offrons des suggestions pour mieux soutenir les expériences des étudiants immigrants dansles universités canadiennes

Cooperative roles of the suprachiasmatic nucleus central clock and the adrenal clock in controlling circadian glucocorticoid rhythm

The mammalian circadian timing system consists of the central clock in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and subsidiary peripheral clocks in other tissues. Glucocorticoids (GCs) are adrenal steroid hormones with widespread physiological effects that undergo daily oscillations. We previously demonstrated that the adrenal peripheral clock plays a pivotal role in circadian GC rhythm by driving cyclic GC biosynthesis. Here, we show that the daily rhythm in circulating GC levels is controlled by bimodal actions of central and adrenal clockwork. When mice were subjected to daytime restricted feeding to uncouple central and peripheral rhythms, adrenal GC contents and steroidogenic acute regulatory protein expression peaked around zeitgeber time 00 (ZT00), consistent with shifted adrenal clock gene expression. However, restricted feeding produced two distinct peaks in plasma GC levels: one related to adrenal GC content and the other around ZT12, which required an intact SCN. Light pulse-evoked activation of the SCN increased circulating GC levels in both wild-type and adrenal clock-disrupted mutant mice without marked induction of GC biosynthesis. In conclusion, we demonstrate that adrenal clock-dependent steroidogenesis and a SCN-driven central mechanism regulating GC release cooperate to produce daily circulatory GC rhythm. © The Author(s) 2017.1

In silico identification of metabolic engineering strategies for improved lipid production in Yarrowia lipolytica by genome-scale metabolic modeling

Background Yarrowia lipolytica, an oleaginous yeast, is a promising platform strain for production of biofuels and oleochemicals as it can accumulate a high level of lipids in response to nitrogen limitation. Accordingly, many metabolic engineering efforts have been made to develop engineered strains of Y. lipolytica with higher lipid yields. Genome-scale model of metabolism (GEM) is a powerful tool for identifying novel genetic designs for metabolic engineering. Several GEMs for Y. lipolytica have recently been developed; however, not many applications of the GEMs have been reported for actual metabolic engineering of Y. lipolytica. The major obstacle impeding the application of Y. lipolytica GEMs is the lack of proper methods for predicting phenotypes of the cells in the nitrogen-limited condition, or more specifically in the stationary phase of a batch culture. Results In this study, we showed that environmental version of minimization of metabolic adjustment (eMOMA) can be used for predicting metabolic flux distribution of Y. lipolytica under the nitrogen-limited condition and identifying metabolic engineering strategies to improve lipid production in Y. lipolytica. Several well-characterized overexpression targets, such as diglyceride acyltransferase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, and stearoyl-CoA desaturase, were successfully rediscovered by our eMOMA-based design method, showing the relevance of prediction results. Interestingly, the eMOMA-based design method also suggested non-intuitive knockout targets, and we experimentally validated the prediction with a mutant lacking YALI0F30745g, one of the predicted targets involved in one-carbon/methionine metabolism. The mutant accumulated 45% more lipids compared to the wild-type. Conclusion This study demonstrated that eMOMA is a powerful computational method for understanding and engineering the metabolism of Y. lipolytica and potentially other oleaginous microorganisms.This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF2017R1E1A1A01073523) and Industrial Strategic technology development program, 20002734 funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MI, Korea

Changes in vegetation and flora of abandoned paddy terraces in responses to drawdown

In order to assess the impacts of drawdown for land-use change on a Sphagnum-marsh, we compared the vegetation and flora of the wetland before and after the drawdown with focusing on the population of Sphagnum palustre L. Remarkable changes in the coverage of S. palustre and the major vegetational components of the wetland were observed. The coverage of S. palustre markedly decreased by about 75% (from approx. 247 m2 in 2011 to approx. 62 m2 in 2015) after the drawdown. Tree species such as Salix spp. extended (from about 70% to about 83% in the total coverage of the wetland), whereas herbaceous species shrunk after the drawdown. Upland-inhabiting species such as obligate plants for uplands (OBU) increased, whereas wetland-inhabiting species such as facultative plants for wetlands (FACW) and OBW decreased in terms of vegetational coverage. The total number of plant species decreased from 70 species to 62 species after the drawdown, including the disappearance of some wetland-inhabiting species from the wetland. We suggest that the attention for further studies on the abandoned paddy terraces (APTs) and effort for the management and conservation of APTs and APT-inhabiting species that are vulnerable to human-induced disturbances have to be paid more.This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2015R1D1A1A01057373) and by the Korea government (MSIT) (NRF-2018R1A2B2002267)

Differences in functional traits of leaf blade and culm of common reed in four habitat types

We compared the functional traits of leaf blades and culms of common reed (Phragmites australis) in four habitat types of distinguished environments such as temperature, precipitation, water characteristics, and indices related to biomass production (montane fen, MF; riparian marsh, RM; lagoon, LG; and salt marsh, SM). We also examined the relationships between the functional traits within and among populations. Four populations showed remarkable differences in the functional traits of leaf blades and culms. MF and RM had relatively tall (> 300 cm) and thick (> 8 mm) culms bearing long leaf blades (> 40 cm), whereas LG and SM had relatively shorter and thinner culms bearing shorter leaf blades than MF and RM. Some relationships between the functional traits of leaf blades and culms showed negative or not significant correlations within the population, whereas most of the relationships between the functional traits showed positive correlations particularly when all the data from four populations was included into the correlation analysis.This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2015R1D1A1A01057373) and by the Korea government (MSIT) (NRF-2018R1A2B2002267)

Effects of different day length and wind conditions to the seedling growth performance of Phragmites australis

Background To understand shade and wind effects on seedling traits of common reed (Phragmites australis), we conducted a mesocosm experiment manipulating day length (10 h daytime a day as open canopy conditions or 6 h daytime a day as partially closed canopy conditions) and wind speed (0 m/s as windless conditions or 4 m/s as windy conditions). Results Most values of functional traits of leaf blades, culms, and biomass production of P. australis were higher under long day length. In particular, we found sole positive effects of long day length in several functional traits such as internode and leaf blade lengths and the values of above-ground dry weight (DW), rhizome DW, and total DW. Wind-induced effects on functional traits were different depending on functional traits. Wind contributed to relatively low values of chlorophyll contents, angles between leaf blades, mean culm height, and maximum culm height. In contrast, wind contributed to relatively high values of culm density and below-ground DW. Conclusions Although wind appeared to inhibit the vertical growth of P. australis through physiological and morphological changes in leaf blades, it seemed that P. australis might compensate the inhibited vertical growth with increased horizontal growth such as more numerous culms, indicating a highly adaptive characteristic of P. australis in terms of phenotypic plasticity under windy environments.This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2015R1D1A1A01057373) and by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Science and ICT) (NRF-2018R1A2B2002267)