• Title/Summary/Keyword: performance improvement

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Removal of Alkali Metal Ion using Inorganic Ion Exchanger (무기이온교환제를 이용한 알카리 금속이온 제거)

  • Ha, Ji-Won;Yi, Kwang Bok;Lee, Si Hyun;Rhee, Young-Woo;Kim, Jong-Nam
    • Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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    • v.46 no.2
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    • pp.423-429
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    • 2008
  • Currently, Ash-free clean coal producing process by solvent extraction is under development. The produced ash-free clean coal can be directly combusted in a gas turbine which results in substantial improvement of power generation efficiency. However, the clean coal produced by the solvent extraction still contain trace amount of alkali metal which may cause corrosion on turbine blades during the direct combustion. In present work ${\alpha},{\beta}$-metal (Zr and Ti) phosphates and H-Y zeolite were synthesized and their ion exchange characterizations were investigated for the application on alkali metal removal for clean coal production. $Na^+$ ion removal capacities of the metal phosphates and H-Y zeolite were measured and compared in both aqueous solution (100 ppmw, $Na^+$) and coal dissolved N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP, 12 ppmw $Na^+$) at elevated temperature. In aqueous solution, the ${\beta}$ form metal phosphates showed very high ion exchange capacities compared to ${\alpha}$ form. ${\beta}$ form metal phosphates also showed higher $Na^+$ removal capacities than H-Y zeolite. In ion exchange medium of NMP, all the ${\alpha}$ form metal phosphates showed over 90% of $Na^+$ ion removal efficiency in the temperature range of 200 to 400 while that of H-Y zeolite decreased as a half when the temperature was over 350. In addition, the regenerated metal phosphates by acid treatment showed no sign of degradation in $Na^+$ removal efficiency. Among the metal phosphates used, $Zr_{0.75}Ti_{0.25}(HPO_4)_2$ showed the best performance in $Na^+$ removal and is expected to be the most suitable inorganic ion exchanger for the alkali metal removal process.

Trends in Genetic Parameters with Age and Site for Early Implications of Genetic Improvement in Korean White Pine (잣나무의 유전적(遺傳的) 형질(形質) 개량(改良)의 조기검정(早期檢定)을 위한 수령(樹齡) 및 입지별(立地別) 생장(生長)과 유전모수(遺傳母數)의 특성(特性)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究))

  • Kim, Dae Eun;Chon, Sang Keun
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.79 no.1
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    • pp.56-70
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    • 1990
  • Eighteen Korean white pine (P. koraiensis S. et Z.) families were tested in 3 different regions from age 5 to 9. Family and site were significant sources of variation for seedling survival and field growth, whereas the effects of family x site interaction ware relatively small as compared with the former sources of variation. Variance components estimated from the separate and combined sites indicated that the most variabilities were associated with individual trees within plot. Family ${\times}$ site interaction components as a percentage of family variance decreased sharply with age. Heritability estimates varied with testing site and tree age. Combined analyses, however, showed a moderate change in heritability with increasing tree ages, and demonstrated high and stable trends of estimates, particularly in family heritabilities of tree height ($h_F{^2}=0.789-0.798$). The gains estimated from combined analysis have expected maximum or near-maximum efficiencies at age 6 or 7. Given equal intensity of selection, mass selection showed the most efficient gains within and across the sites. However, for the differences between mass and combined selections are small, selection made on the combination of family and within-family would be more effective in improving genetic gains. Indirect selection method indicated that 5-and 6-years height were all good predictors of 9-year-old height with little loss of relative efficiency (less than 10%) as compared with direct family selection at age 9. Phenotypic and genetic correlations computed on the basis of family mean values of height and diameter have shown predominantly high, positive, and statistically significant (1% level) relationships between all tested pairs of traits, which indicates that family growth maintained statistically consistent trends with age. The best families are those that maintained a stable superiority overall sites and ages in growth performance, therefore, it can be suggested that early identification of superior families at age 9 is feasible at age 5 or 6 in Pinus koraiensis S. et Z.

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An Analysis of the Government Officer's Understanding on Landscape Law and Institutions (경관제도에 대한 경관담당 공무원 인식조사)

  • Joo, Shin-Ha
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.45 no.3
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    • pp.54-65
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    • 2017
  • The purpose of this study is to investigate the perception of landscape law and institutions and to provide basic data for improvement of landscape systems. Specifically, we analyzed the importance and achievement of various landscape systems, and examined the understanding and perception of government officers in landscape plan, landscape project, landscape agreement, landscape reviews and landscape committees, landscape ordinance, and landscape administration. The main results of the study are summarized as follows. 1. Overall, the landscape administration system was highly interested, and it was also positive about the utility of the landscape law and the landscape charter. As a result of analysis of the IPA, the landscape plan and the landscape policy plan need to be intensively improved. 2. The landscape plan is mostly used for the purpose of responding to the scenery review or complaint request, but about 10.8% of respondents said that they did not refer it at all, so it is urgent to make the contents of the landscape plan real and improve the performance. Although many officers thought that less than 18 months would be quite enough for landscape plans, but it is necessary to change this duration issue. 3. In order to improve landscape projects and landscape agreements, it seems that budget securing, experts, and promotional organizations should be improved first. 4. It is urgently necessary to enhance the understanding about overall landscape law and systems of landscape review committee in order to supplement the landscape review and the landscape committee. 5. Administrative support such as personnel recruitment is required for landscape ordinance and landscape administration, and it is also found that many officers also have a great burden in making subjective judgment as the person in charge. There could be a positive bias in the results of the study, because the survey was conducted only for public officials who participated in the education. But the result will be helpful to look at the overall tendency of the landscape system. I hope that it will help improve the landscape system in the future much more realistic.

Task Status of Dental Hygienists of Health Centers and Subcenters (일개 도지역 보건기관 근무 치과위생사의 직무실태와 개선방안)

  • Eun, Jong-Young;Kam, Sin;Lim, Ji-Seun;Yang, Jin-Hoon;Kim, Jong-Yeon;Han, Chang-Hyun;Yoo, Yoon-Sun;Cha, Byung-Jun;Song, Keun-Bae
    • Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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    • v.27 no.2
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    • pp.35-54
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    • 2002
  • This study was performed to investigate the task status and performance improvement plan of dental hygienists of Health Centers and Subcenters. The Data collected by self-administered Questionnaire survey of 203 dental hygienists of Health Centers and Subcenters located in Gyeongsangbuk-do were analyzed. The major results are as follows: For the degree of satisfaction in tasks, 73.9% of dental hygienists of Health Centers and Subcenters felt proud, 52.2% felt overwork, 32.0% hoped transferring to other worksite and the major reason of transferring was lack of promotion opportunity in officials of dental hygiene department. Dental hygienists received job education in addition continuous job education in last 3 years were 47.3%, 19.2% of dental hygienists performed the special dental health program for residents in last 3years. Almost half(53.7%) of dental hygienists replied that dental hygienists who were not engaged in dental health tasks should be engaged in dental health tasks. The major dental hygienic tasks performed by dental hygienic officials were support for dental treatment(41.6%). Dental hygienic officials answered that dental health tasks, school dental health program, vertical dental health program should be conducted as important tasks in order. And they replied that the most serious problem of dental hygienic tasks was not conducting dental health affairs due to 'lack of dental doctor'(40.9%), 'lack of concern for dental health tasks'(26.4%), and 'lack of budget and personnels for dental tasks'(19.0%), and the most important thing to improve dental hygienic tasks was 'posting dental hygienists in ministry of health and welfare(MOHW) and province', 'securing of budget and personnels for dental health tasks'.

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Application of CMP Process to Improving Thickness-Uniformity of Sputtering-deposited CdTe Thin Film for Improvement of Optical Properties (스퍼터링 증확 CdTe 박막의 두께 불균일 현상 개선을 위한 화학적기계적연마 공정 적용 및 광특성 향상)

  • Park, Ju-Sun;Lim, Chae-Hyun;Ryu, Seung-Han;Myung, Kuk-Do;Kim, Nam-Hoon;Lee, Woo-Sun
    • Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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    • 2010.06a
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    • pp.375-375
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    • 2010
  • CdTe as an absorber material is widely used in thin film solar cells with the heterostructure due to its almost ideal band gap energy of 1.45 eV, high photovoltaic conversion efficiency, low cost and stable performance. The deposition methods and preparation conditions for the fabrication of CdTe are very important for the achievement of high solar cell conversion efficiency. There are some rearranged reports about the deposition methods available for the preparation of CdTe thin films such as close spaced sublimation (CSS), physical vapor deposition (PVD), vacuum evaporation, vapor transport deposition (VTD), closed space vapor transport, electrodeposition, screen printing, spray pyrolysis, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), and RF sputtering. The RF sputtering method for the preparation of CdTe thin films has important advantages in that the thin films can be prepared at low growth temperatures with large-area deposition suitable for mass-production. The authors reported that the optical and electrical properties of CdTe thin film were closely connected by the thickness-uniformity of the film in the previous study [1], which means that the better optical absorbance and the higher carrier concentration could be obtained in the better condition of thickness-uniformity for CdTe thin film. The thickness-uniformity could be controlled and improved by the some process parameters such as vacuum level and RF power in the sputtering process of CdTe thin films. However, there is a limitation to improve the thickness-uniformity only in the preparation process [1]. So it is necessary to introduce the external or additional method for improving the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin film because the cell size of thin film solar cell will be enlarged. Therefore, the authors firstly applied the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process to improving the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin films with a G&P POLI-450 CMP polisher [2]. CMP process is the most important process in semiconductor manufacturing processes in order to planarize the surface of the wafer even over 300 mm and to form the copper interconnects with damascene process. Some important CMP characteristics for CdTe were obtained including removal rate (RR), WIWNU%, RMS roughness, and peak-to-valley roughness [2]. With these important results, the CMP process for CdTe thin films was performed to improve the thickness-uniformity of the sputtering-deposited CdTe thin film which had the worst two thickness-uniformities of them. Some optical properties including optical transmittance and absorbance of the CdTe thin films were measured by using a UV-Visible spectrophotometer (Varian Techtron, Cary500scan) in the range of 400 - 800 nm. After CMP process, the thickness-uniformities became better than that of the best condition in the previous sputtering process of CdTe thin films. Consequently, the optical properties were directly affected by the thickness-uniformity of CdTe thin film. The absorbance of CdTe thin films was improved although the thickness of CdTe thin film was not changed.

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Biochemical Composition of Rotifer, Brachionus plicatilis Enriched with Different Commercial Enrichments (영양 강화제 종류에 따른 rotifer, Brachionus plicatilis의 생화학적 조성)

  • ;Joseph A. Brown
    • Journal of Aquaculture
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    • v.17 no.3
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    • pp.187-196
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    • 2004
  • This study was carried out to investigate changes in biochemical composition of rotifer, Brachionus plicatilis, enriched with the commercial enrichments (Enhance, Advantage, Algamac-2000, DHA-Selco and Advantage + Chlorella) at various durations of enrichment (0, 6, 12 and 24 hr) to improve the growth and survival of marine fish larvae. Total lipid content of rotifers enriched with various enrichments tended to increase with an increase in durations of enrichment up to 6 hr, but after that, was not significantly affected by enrichment materials. However, total protein content of rotifers enriched groups except for Advantage+Chlorella decreased with the increase in duration of enrichment. The highest protein/lipid ratio showed 2.7 in rotifer enriched with the Advantage +Chlorella. The phospholipid/lipid ratio of rotifer enriched with the Enhance, Advantage and Advantage+Chlorella groups was significantly higher than that of enriched rotifer with the Algamac-2000 and DHA-Selco groups. The highest DHA level, 2.5%, of rotifer enriched for 24 hr was obtained in the Advantage, but was not significantly different among other groups, except for Algamac-2000. No significant difference in DHA level of rotifer enriched with the DHA-Selco, Algamac-2000 and Advantage+Chlorella groups was observed between l2h and 24hr of enrichment. The DHA/EPA ratio in the enriched rotifers varied among enrichment material groups, ranged from a high level of 11.1:1 in the Advantage+Chlorella group to a low level of 4.1:1 in DHA-Selco group. The results from this study indicate that rotifers enriched with Enhance, Advantage and Advantage+Chlorella seemed to be effective to improve nutritional value of rotifer for marine fish larvae because phospholipid, DHAJEPA and protein/lipid ratios of rotifer enriched with Enhance, Advantage+Chlorella were higher than those of rotifer enriched with either DHA-Selco or Algamac-2000. Especially, supplementation of the Chlorella to these enrichments would appear to be effective for improvement of fish larval performance because of no reduction of protein level in rotifer, which is critical for growth of fish larvae.

Structural Relationships Among Factors to Adoption of Telehealth Service (원격의료서비스 수용요인의 구조적 관계 실증연구)

  • Kim, Sung-Soo;Ryu, See-Won
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.21 no.3
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    • pp.71-96
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    • 2011
  • Within the traditional medical delivery system, patients residing in medically vulnerable areas, those with body movement difficulties, and nursing facility residents have had limited access to good healthcare services. However, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides us with a convenient and useful means of overcoming distance and time constraints. ICT is integrated with biomedical science and technology in a way that offers a new high-quality medical service. As a result, rapid technological advancement is expected to play a pivotal role bringing about innovation in a wide range of medical service areas, such as medical management, testing, diagnosis, and treatment; offering new and improved healthcare services; and effecting dramatic changes in current medical services. The increase in aging population and chronic diseases has caused an increase in medical expenses. In response to the increasing demand for efficient healthcare services, a telehealth service based on ICT is being emphasized on a global level. Telehealth services have been implemented especially in pilot projects and system development and technological research. With the service about to be implemented in earnest, it is necessary to study its overall acceptance by consumers, which is expected to contribute to the development and activation of a variety of services. In this sense, the study aims at positively examining the structural relationship among the acceptance factors for telehealth services based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected by showing audiovisual material on telehealth services to online panels and requesting them to respond to a structured questionnaire sheet, which is known as the information acceleration method. Among the 1,165 adult respondents, 608 valid samples were finally chosen, while the remaining were excluded because of incomplete answers or allotted time overrun. In order to test the reliability and validity of the assessment scale items, we carried out reliability and factor analyses, and in order to explore the causal relation among potential variables, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 17.0. The research outcomes are as follows. First, service quality, innovativeness of medical technology, and social influence were shown to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the telehealth service, which was statistically significant, and the two factors had a positive impact on willingness to accept the telehealth service. In addition, social influence had a direct, significant effect on intention to use, which is paralleled by the TAM used in previous research on technology acceptance. This shows that the research model proposed in the study effectively explains the acceptance of the telehealth service. Second, the research model reveals that information privacy concerns had a insignificant impact on perceived ease of use of the telehealth service. From this, it can be gathered that the concerns over information protection and security are reduced further due to advancements in information technology compared to the initial period in the information technology industry, and thus the improvement in quality of medical services appeared to ensure that information privacy concerns did not act as a prohibiting factor in the acceptance of the telehealth service. Thus, if other factors have an enormous impact on ease of use and usefulness, concerns over these results in the initial period of technology acceptance may become irrelevant. However, it is clear that users' information privacy concerns, as other studies have revealed, is a major factor affecting technology acceptance. Thus, caution must be exercised while interpreting the result, and further study is required on the issue. Numerous information technologies with outstanding performance and innovativeness often attract few consumers. A revised bill for those urgently in need of telehealth services is about to be approved in the national assembly. As telemedicine is implemented between doctors and patients, a wide range of systems that will improve the quality of healthcare services will be designed. In this sense, the study on the consumer acceptance of telehealth services is meaningful and offers strong academic evidence. Based on the implications, it can be expected to contribute to the activation of telehealth services. Further study is needed to assess the acceptance factors for telehealth services, such as motivation to remain healthy, health care involvement, knowledge on health, and control of health-related behavior, in order to develop unique services according to the categorization of customers based on health factors. In addition, further study may focus on various theoretical cognitive behavior models other than the TAM, such as the health belief model.

Evaluation on Reproducibility of Low-Dose Kidney Scan in Dynamic Kidney Scan (동적신장검사에서 저선량을 사용한 신장검사의 재현성 평가)

  • Lee, Jaesang;Lee, Kyuchan;Lee, Seunghwan;Bae, Seongbok;Park, Jongyeop
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.20 no.1
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    • pp.59-65
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    • 2016
  • Purpose Dynamic kidney scan is a typical imaging technique that visualizes kidney function. Reproducibility of dynamic kidney scans has been evaluated by comparing low-dose kidney scans with low-dose radiopharmaceutical and standard dynamic kidney scan. With this comparative study, if reproducibility is superb, the dynamic kidney scan method with reduced radioactivity to patients is to be utilized and radiation exposure to patient is to be reduced. Materials and Methods For gamma camera, Orbiter, SymbiaE (Siemens, Germany) was used. Among patients who had used 370 Mbq (10 mCi) from January of 2013 to February 2014 and other patients who had used 185 Mbq (5 mCi) from March of 2014 to July of 2015 with identical condition, 21 subjects using DTPA and 20 subjects using $MAG_3$, 41 subjects in total, had been selected as subjects for data. From renogram of the result image, frame of the peak point was selected. Then, region of interest of kidney and background had been selected and Kidney to Background Ratio has been calculated for comparison. Results In tests using DTPA, kidney to background ratio when using 370 Mbq was $5.67{\pm}0.8$ at average while it was $5.62{\pm}0.87$ when using 185 Mbq, which didn't show much difference. Also in the tests using $MAG_3$, kidney to background ratio when using 370 Mbq was $14.95{\pm}2.58$ at average and $14.56{\pm}2.02$ in 185 Mbq, which neither showed much difference. In paired sample t-test, p-value was 0.566 in DTPA and 0.363 in $MAG_3$, which confirmed that there was no difference between the groups. Conclusion In identical patients, when dose was decreased from 370 Mbq to 185 Mbq, reproducibility of dynamic kidney scan was proven to be excellent. Low-dose Dynamic kidney scan can achieve results with fine reproducibility without improvement in performance of gamma camera and is expected to reduce radiation exposure to patient.

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Growth and Survival of the Spat of Arkshell, Scapharca broughtonii in Intermediate Culture with Different Shape of Protective Net and Type of Preventive Net of Spat Loss (피조개, Scaphara broughtonii 부착치패의 중간양성시 보호망 형태와 유실방지망 종류에 따른 성장과 생존)

  • Kim, Byeong-Hak;Shin, Yun-Kyung;Park, Ki-Yeol;Choi, Nack-Joong;Oh, Bong-Se;Min, Byeong-Hee
    • The Korean Journal of Malacology
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.131-136
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    • 2008
  • Growth and survival of the spat of arkshell, Scapharca broughtonii were investigated for the improvement of survival in intermediate culture with different shape of protective net and type of preventive net of spat loss. The growth performance of the spat of arkshell was observed for 60 days by using different forms of protective net, as the exposure form with an average shell length of $12.8{\pm}3.2$ mm(P<0.05), the fish pot form with $12.2{\pm}3.5$ mm, the cylinder form with $11.9{\pm}3.8$ mm and the last one is the rectangular form with $10.9{\pm}3.7$ mm. Their numerical value did not show any marked difference with each other. But in case of survival rate, the fish pot form showed highest survival rate which is 43.7% and the significantly lowest was showed by the exposure form, which is 5.4%(P<0.05). The cylinder form and rectangular form showed 41.2 and 31.6% respectively. And then the growth of the spat of arkshell was observed for 163 days by rearing in a sort of preventive net, the first group was in a blackout curtain with average shell length of $13.9{\pm}3.1$ mm, the next group was in a balsam pear net with $12.9{\pm}3.0$ mm, in a polyethylene net with $11.8{\pm}3.1$ mm and the control with $12.6{\pm}3.3$ mm which was not installed by preventive net of spat loss. The survival rate was 91.5% in a blackout curtain, 90.1% in a polyethylene net, 88.5% in a balsam pear net and 61.5% in a controlled group. It is seen that the highest growth and survival rate were observed in a fish pot form and cylinder form. These results were a little bit difference from those of the spat of arkshell cultured in the form of different preventive nets. There was no significant difference in survival rate in relation to the sorts of preventive net against carrying-away, but there was a difference in survival rate by more than 30% as against the non-installed controlled group. We expect that survival rate would be highly improved in intermediate culture carried out with fish pot form and cylinder form of protective net and preventive net of spat loss.

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Evaluation of lines of NERICA 1 introgressed with Gn1a and WFP for yield and yield components as affected by nitrogen fertilization in Kenya

  • Makihara, Daigo;Samejima, Hiroaki;Kikuta, Mayumi;Kimani, John M.;Ashikari, Motoyuki;Angeles-Shim, Rosalyn;Sunohara, Hidehiko;Jena, Kshirod K.;Yamauchi, Akira;Doi, Kazuyuki
    • Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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    • 2017.06a
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    • pp.323-323
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    • 2017
  • In many sub-Saharan African countries, boosting rice production is a pressing food security issue. To contribute to the increase in rice production, we have developed lines of NERICA 1 introgressed with the gene for spikelet number, Gn1a, and the gene for primary rachis-branch number, WFP by cross breeding. The performance of rice lines introgressed with the genes for yield related traits can be affected by cultivation environment and management. Thus, in this study, we aimed to evaluate the lines of NERICA 1 introgressed with Gn1a or/and WFP for yield and yield components under different nitrogen fertilization conditions in Kenya. A field trial was conducted at a paddy field in Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization-Mwea, Kirinyaga County ($0^{\circ}39^{\prime}S$, $0^{\circ}20^{\prime}E$) from August 2016 to January 2017. Eight lines of NERICA 1 introgressed with Gn1a and/or WFP, and their parents, NERICA 1 and ST12, were grown under 0 (NF) and $75(SF)kg\;N\;ha^{-1}$. At maturity, five hills per plot were harvested to determine the yield and yield components. The number of primary and secondary rachis-branches per panicle was measured on the longest panicle in each hill. Under SF, the introgression of WFP to NERICA 1 increased the number of primary and secondary rachis-branches by 27 and 25%, respectively. On the other hand, Gn1a did not increase the number of primary rachis-branches, whereas the number of secondary rachis-branches was increased by 38% on average. The number of primary and secondary rachis-branches of the lines introgressed with both genes increased by 25 and 56%, respectively. Although grain number per panicle increased 33% by Gn1a, 34% by WFP, and 43% by Gn1a+WFP, the yield increase by Gn1a, WFP, and Gn1a+WFP was only 14, 7, and 14%, respectively. The suppression of the yield increase was mainly attributed to the decline in the filled grain ratio. Under NF, WFP increased the number of primary and secondary rachis-branches by 20 and 19%, respectively. The introgression of both genes increased the former and the later by 19 and 35%, respectively. However, Gn1a did not change them under NF. Thus, even under NF, grain yield increased 11% by WFP and 24% by Gn1a+WFP due to the increased grain number although filled grain ratio declined. Our findings suggest that the introgression of Gn1a and WFP could contribute to the rice productivity improvement in sub-Saharan Africa even under low fertility conditions. Improving filled grain ratio of the lines introgressed with these genes by further breeding and fertilization management will be the focus of subsequent work.

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