Forage Rye Cultivars for Animal Feed in Korea

Rye (Secale cereal L.) is well known for its overwintering ability and has the highest tolerance to cold temperature of the small grain cereals such as wheat, barley, and oat. Rye is used as livestock pasture and as green manure in Korea, and its cultivation area for fodder is about 50,000 ha in 2014. Most rye is grown as a fall-sown annual crop, generally called “winter rye”. In Korea, rye cultivation for whole crop silage (WCS) in the winter-season rice field can be considered as a promising way to enhance feed supply. The WCS production can be an efficient way to use farm products as livestock feed, and it can also contribute to increasing farm income. Although rye is inferior in several ways to the predominant cereal crops (wheat, rice, and maize), it will continue to be an important crop for farmers in Korea because of its winter hardiness and early harvesting by rapid growing ability

Charge-spin correlation in van der Waals antiferromagenet NiPS3

Strong charge-spin coupling is found in a layered transition-metal trichalcogenide NiPS3, a van derWaals antiferromagnet, from our study of the electronic structure using several experimental and theoretical tools: spectroscopic ellipsometry, x-ray absorption and photoemission spectroscopy, and density-functional calculations. NiPS3 displays an anomalous shift in the optical spectral weight at the magnetic ordering temperature, reflecting a strong coupling between the electronic and magnetic structures. X-ray absorption, photoemission and optical spectra support a self-doped ground state in NiPS3. Our work demonstrates that layered transition-metal trichalcogenide magnets are a useful candidate for the study of correlated-electron physics in two-dimensional magnetic material.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figur

Stem cell treatment for patients with autoimmune disease by systemic infusion of culture-expanded autologous adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells

Prolonged life expectancy, life style and environmental changes have caused a changing disease pattern in developed countries towards an increase of degenerative and autoimmune diseases. Stem cells have become a promising tool for their treatment by promoting tissue repair and protection from immune-attack associated damage. Patient-derived autologous stem cells present a safe option for this treatment since these will not induce immune rejection and thus multiple treatments are possible without any risk for allogenic sensitization, which may arise from allogenic stem cell transplantations. Here we report the outcome of treatments with culture expanded human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAdMSCs) of 10 patients with autoimmune associated tissue damage and exhausted therapeutic options, including autoimmune hearing loss, multiple sclerosis, polymyotitis, atopic dermatitis and rheumatoid arthritis. For treatment, we developed a standardized culture-expansion protocol for hAdMSCs from minimal amounts of fat tissue, providing sufficient number of cells for repetitive injections. High expansion efficiencies were routinely achieved from autoimmune patients and from elderly donors without measurable loss in safety profile, genetic stability, vitality and differentiation potency, migration and homing characteristics. Although the conclusions that can be drawn from the compassionate use treatments in terms of therapeutic efficacy are only preliminary, the data provide convincing evidence for safety and therapeutic properties of systemically administered AdMSC in human patients with no other treatment options. The authors believe that ex-vivo-expanded autologous AdMSCs provide a promising alternative for treating autoimmune diseases. Further clinical studies are needed that take into account the results obtained from case studies as those presented here

Forward-looking ultrasound wearable scanner system for estimation of urinary bladder volume

Accurate measurement of bladder volume is an important tool for evaluating bladder function. In this study, we propose a wearable bladder scanner system that can continuously measure bladder volume in daily life for urinary patients who need urodynamic studies. The system consisted of a 2-D array, which included integrated forward-looking piezoelectric transducers with thin substrates. This study aims to estimate the volume of the bladder using a small number of piezoelectric transducers. A least-squares method was implemented to optimize an ellipsoid in a quadratic surface equation for bladder volume estimation. Ex-vivo experiments of a pig bladder were conducted to validate the proposed system. This work presents the potential of the approach for wearable bladder monitoring, which has similar measurement accuracy compared to the commercial bladder imaging system. The wearable bladder scanner can be improved further as electronic voiding diaries by adding a few more features to the current function. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.1

OF@TEIN: An OpenFlow-enabled SDN Testbed over International SmartX Rack Sites

In this paper, we will discuss our on-going effort for OF@TEIN SDN(Software-Defined Networking) testbed, which currently spans over Korea and fiveSouth-East Asian (SEA) collaborators with internationally deployed OpenFlowenabledSmartX Racks

High sensitivity bolometers based on metal nanoantenna dimers with a nanogap filled with vanadium dioxide

One critical factor for bolometer sensitivity is efficient electromagnetic heating of thermistor materials, which plasmonic nanogap structures can provide through the electric field enhancement. In this report, using finite element method simulation, electromagnetic heating of nanorod dimer antennas with a nanogap filled with vanadium dioxide (VO2) was studied for long-wavelength infrared detection. Because VO2 is a thermistor material, the electrical resistance between the two dimer ends depends on the dimer's temperature. The simulation results show that, due to the high heating ability of the nanogap, the temperature rise is several times higher than expected from the areal coverage. This excellent performance is observed over various nanorod lengths and gap widths, ensuring wavelength tunability and ultrafast operating speed, thereby making the dimer structures a promising candidate for high sensitivity bolometers

Community-based intervention to promote breast cancer awareness and screening: The Korean experience

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There are many differences in culture, community identity, community participation, and ownership between communities in Western and Asian countries; thus, it is difficult to adopt the results of community intervention studies from Western countries. In this study, we conducted a multicity, multicomponent community intervention trial to correct breast cancer myths and promote screening mammography for women living in an urban community in Korea.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A 6-month, 2-city community intervention trial was conducted. In the intervention city, 480 women were surveyed at baseline and 7 months later to evaluate the effects of the intervention program. Strategies implemented in the intervention city included community outreach and clinic and pharmacy-based in-reach strategies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study showed a 20.4-percentage-point decrease in myths about the link between cancer and breast size, a 19.2-percentage-point decrease in myths concerning mammography costs, and a 14.1-percentage-point increase in intention to undergo screening mammography. We also saw a 23.4-percentage-point increase in the proportion of women at the action stage of the transtheoretical model in the intervention city. In the comparison city, smaller decreases and increases were observed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study showed the value of an intervention study aimed at reducing belief in breast cancer myths in an urban community in Korea. The invention also made women more likely to undergo mammography in future.</p

Nanosilver Colloids-Filled Photonic Crystal Arrays for Photoluminescence Enhancement

For the improved surface plasmon-coupled photoluminescence emission, a more accessible fabrication method of a controlled nanosilver pattern array was developed by effectively filling the predefined hole array with nanosilver colloid in a UV-curable resin via direct nanoimprinting. When applied to a glass substrate for light emittance with an oxide spacer layer on top of the nanosilver pattern, hybrid emission enhancements were produced from both the localized surface plasmon resonance-coupled emission enhancement and the guided light extraction from the photonic crystal array. When CdSe/ZnS nanocrystal quantum dots were deposited as an active emitter, a total photoluminescence intensity improvement of 84% was observed. This was attributed to contributions from both the silver nanoparticle filling and the nanoimprinted photonic crystal array

The HPAfrica protocol : assessment of health behaviour and population-based socioeconomic, hygiene behavioural factors - a standardised repeated cross-sectional study in multiple cohorts in sub-Saharan Africa

The objective of the Health Population Africa (HPAfrica) study is to determine health behaviour and population-based factors, including socioeconomic, ethnographic, hygiene and sanitation factors, at sites of the Severe Typhoid Fever in Africa (SETA) programme. SETA aims to investigate healthcare facility-based fever surveillance in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar and Nigeria. Meaningful disease burden estimates require adjustment for health behaviour patterns, which are assumed to vary among a study population.; For the minimum sample size of household interviews required, the assumptions of an infinite population, a design effect and age-stratification and sex-stratification are considered. In the absence of a population sampling frame or household list, a spatial approach will be used to generate geographic random points with an Aeronautical Reconnaissance Coverage Geographic Information System tool. Printouts of Google Earth Pro satellite imagery visualise these points. Data of interest will be assessed in different seasons by applying population-weighted stratified sampling. An Android-based application and a web service will be developed for electronic data capturing and synchronisation with the database server in real time. Sampling weights will be computed to adjust for possible differences in selection probabilities. Descriptive data analyses will be performed in order to assess baseline information of each study population and age-stratified and sex-stratified health behaviour. This will allow adjusting disease burden estimates. In addition, multivariate analyses will be applied to look into associations between health behaviour, population-based factors and the disease burden as determined in the SETA study.; Ethic approvals for this protocol were obtained by the Institutional Review Board of the International Vaccine Institute (No. 2016-0003) and by all collaborating institutions of participating countries. It is anticipated to disseminate findings from this study through publication on a peer-reviewed journal