• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.211-214
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• 2014

This study investigated the effects of using a pollen suspension for artificial pollination on the labor costs, fruit set, and fruit quality attributes of 'Fuji' apples. The pollen germination rate was 20% in a 20% fructose solution after 6 hours, and the pollen remained stable for 6 hours in the same solution. The king fruit per flower cluster exhibited a normal fruit set, regardless of the treatment. Plus, none of the artificial pollination applications affected the fruit length/diameter ratio, flesh firmness, soluble solids concentration, or titratable acidity in the harvested 'Fuji' apple fruits. However, the labor savings were significantly higher with the pollen suspension treatment when compared with the cotton swab or love-touch. Therefore, the labor cost was four-fold less in use of pollen suspension than in use of cotton swab for artificial pollination.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.6 s.67
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• pp.1018-1022
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• 2004

Optimized conditions for Agrobacterium-mediated lisianthus pollen transformation were adjusted using various factors such as temperature, pH and sucrose concentration. Pollen tube growth was successfully achieved in a medium (pollen germination medium; PGM) containing $7-15\%$ sucrose with pH in the range of 5.5-7.0 at temperature of $20-27^{\circ}C$. Lisianthus pollen was vacuum-infiltrated with Agrobacterium cell suspension for 20 min, and transformed pollen was confirmed by GUS histochemistry and Southern hybridization following RT-PCR. Transgenic pollen system may be utilized for establishing an area of plant transient expression systems based on the convenient pollen transformation procedure presented in here.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2013

Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) pollinosis is the most popular pollinosis in Japan. It has been reported that Cryptomeria japonica pollen allergenic species are suspended as fine particles in the urban atmosphere. These allergenic fine particles are responsible for inducing asthma by breaking into the lower respiratory tract. It has also been found that pollinosis symptoms on the sufferers appear mainly at night-time by the results from epidemiological studies. However, the exact reason for these phenomena is not yet clarified. In this study, the diurnal and nocturnal behaviours of Cryptomeria japonica pollen grains and their allergenic species in the urban area of Saitama city of Kanto Plain were investigated. Airborne pollen grains and allergenic Cry j 1 concentrations in total suspended particulate matter (TSP) were investigated at two sampling sites, a heavy traffic road (roadside site) and at the balcony of the $10^{th}$ floor of the Building of Research and Project of Saitama University (general urban site). The latter sampling site where located about 300 m away from the roadside site was used as a general urban site unaffected by automobile traffic. The airborne pollen counts were measured with a real-time pollen monitor. Cry j 1 particles were collected with two high volume air samplers, and these concentrations were measured by surface plasmon resonance method with a Biacore J system. The diurnal variation of the airborne pollen counts was similar to the trends of temperature and wind speed during the day-time; whereas its tendency with wind speed trend was not observed during the night-time. Airborne pollen counts were lower with northern wind than with southern wind because the pollen comes from the mountainous areas, and the mountains in the south are closer, about half the distance to the northern mountains. It is suggested that the peaks of airborne pollen counts during night-time in the sampling site occurred by transport of pollen grains released during day-time in the mountainous forest areas, located c.a. 100 km away from the sampling site. On the roadside site the allergenic Cry j 1 concentrations were higher than at the general urban site, nevertheless pollen grains counts were lower. These results suggested that worsening of pollinosis symptoms during night-time in urban area was caused by transport of pollen grains during day-time in the mountainous forest areas. Moreover, pollen allergenic species become different morphology from pollen grain at roadside site, and the subsequent pollen grains re-suspension by automobile traffic.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.65-80
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• 2013

Sediment transport mechanism and distribution of organic sediments are elucidated by the study of particle size, mineralogy, organic matters and microfossils of the surface samples collected from seafloor adjacent Dokdo island. Shallow marine sediments are dominated by coarse- grained sediments including gravel and sand, and their sedimentation has mainly been controlled by traction. While the samples collected from oceanic zone are characterized by high contents of fine- grained sediments such as silt and mud in bulk sediments, and the changes of mineral compositions including clay minerals and feldspar, and the fine sediments have been deposited mainly by suspension. The change of organic sedimentary communities is detected between neritic and oceanic zone. Although marine organic matter is predominant in neritic zone, terrestrial organic matter is monopolized according to increasing water depth. This trend is associated with grain size of sediments. The results also suggest that high pollen concentrations in whole organic matters may played an important role in excessive organic carbon in sediment.