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This study investigates the impact of omitting short tree data on tree height estimation in conventional forest inventories, focusing on Pinus koraiensis plantations in South Korea. Twenty height-diameter models were tested on both datasets: the complete data and the short tree-free data. The models were divided into Group 1 (with two model parameters) and Group 2 (with three model parameters) to examine whether the omission of short tree data affects model performance based on the number of parameters. Results demonstrated that excluding short tree data led to significant overestimation of tree height in small diameter ranges, with Group 2 models showing greater sensitivity to the omission. This omission also caused substantial variations in model rankings between the Full and short tree-free datasets, leading to specification errors and suboptimal model selection. Despite the small sample size difference, half of the Group 2 models produced non-significant parameter estimates when fitted to the short tree-free data, underscoring the influence of sample distribution on statistical outcomes. While most models maintained consistent height-diameter relationships during extrapolation, some generated unrealistic results, including negative or excessively large tree height estimates and inverse relationships in small diameter ranges. These findings emphasize the necessity of including short trees in forest inventory samples to mitigate biases in tree height estimation, which is critical for accurate biomass and carbon stock assessments.

Research Highlights: The estimation of soil and litter carbon stocks by the Land Use, Land-Use Changes, and Forestry (LULUCF) sectors has the potential to improve reports on national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories. Background and Objectives: Forests are carbon sinks in the LULUCF sectors and therefore can be a comparatively cost-effective means and method of GHG mitigation. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted to assess soil at 0–30 cm and litter carbon stocks using the National Forest Inventory (NFI) data and random forest (RF) models, mapping their carbon stocks. The three main types of forest in South Kora were studied, namely, coniferous, deciduous, and mixed. Results: The litter carbon stocks (t C ha−1) were 4.63 ± 0.18 for coniferous, 3.98 ± 0.15 for mixed, and 3.28 ± 0.13 for deciduous. The soil carbon stocks (t C ha−1) were 44.11 ± 1.54 for deciduous, 35.75 ± 1.60 for mixed, and 33.96 ± 1.62 for coniferous. Coniferous forests had higher litter carbon stocks while deciduous forests contained higher soil carbon stocks. The carbon storage in the soil and litter layer increased as the forest grew older; however, a significant difference was found in several age classes. For mapping the soil and litter carbon stocks, we used four random forest models, namely RF1 to RF4, and the best performing model was RF2 (root mean square error (RMSE) (t C ha−1) = 1.67 in soil carbon stocks, 1.49 in soil and litter carbon stocks). Our study indicated that elevation, accessibility class, slope, diameter at breast height, height, and growing stock are important predictors of carbon stock. Soil and litter carbon stock maps were produced using the RF2 models. Almost all prediction values were appropriated to soil and litter carbon stocks. Conclusions: Estimating and mapping the carbon stocks in the soil and litter layer using the NFI data and random forest models could be used in future national GHG inventory reports. Additionally, the data and models can estimate all carbon pools to achieve an accurate and complete national GHG inventory report.

South Korea’s successful reforestation efforts over the past 50 years have led to abundant forest resources. However, intensive reforestation during the 1970s and 1980s skewed the forests’ age distribution towards forest stands aged 30 years or older, which results in an unbalanced distribution of age-class, requiring redistribution with harvest and effective regeneration plans to produce a sustained yield of timber as well as long term ecological benefits. During this conversion process, variations in timber production can occur, causing economic and ecological risks if excessive. To prevent these likely risks, permissible levels of increase and decrease in timber production can be restricted in the planning phase. In determining the appropriate variation rate in timber production, it is necessary to understand the impacts of variation in timber production on forest management. This study performed a sensitivity analysis to evaluate the economic and ecological impacts of constraining the period-to-period variation in timber production. A multi-objective linear programming (MOLP) forest management planning model was utilized to study forests in Mt. Gari, South Korea. Nine management alternatives were set with different levels of variation rate in timber production and further constraints. The total volume and net present value (NPV) of timber production, carbon storage, and water storage were analyzed for each alternative. As timber production variation rates decreased, the amount of timber production increased and forest carbon storage decreased; furthermore, NPV diminished as variation constraints strengthened. These differences were mainly caused by selection of regeneration species according to the constraint on variation in timber production. If the variation rate was strictly restricted, the area of timber species with short rotation age increased during conversion period, in order to reduce the gap of timber production between periods. At the latter part of planning horizon, the area of broad-leaved trees was enlarged as the burden of adjusting age-class structure reduced. The appropriate variation rate in timber production was determined to be 30%, based on considerations regarding the economic and ecological impact of the variation on the forest.

Displays are one of the most indispensable electronic devices used in our daily lives. Over the past decades, display technology has evolved relentlessly, driven by innovation in materials, structures, and manufacturing processes that have enabled higher image quality, larger screen size, slimmer form factor, and novel functionalities. The display market is currently dominated by liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, but significant investment and research efforts are being directed toward emerging self-emissive display technologies, such as micro-light-emitting diodes (micro-LEDs), as well as unconventional applications such as transparent, deformable, and near-eye displays. This review article begins with a historical background of self-emissive display technology and an overview of the recent advances in organic-, quantum dot-, perovskite-, and micro-LED displays. We then critically review the current state of micro-LED technology, including its size-dependent performance issues, different types of mass transfer technologies, backplane interconnection techniques, methods for detection/repair of defective pixels, and emerging display applications, including transparent, deformable, and virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) displays. Micro-LEDs will lead next-generation display technology such as transparent, deformable and near-eye displays, enabling a wide range of applications with superior performance.

Micro-LEDs (µLEDs) have been explored for augmented and virtual reality display applications that require extremely high pixels per inch and luminance 1 , 2 . However, conventional manufacturing processes based on the lateral assembly of red, green and blue (RGB) µLEDs have limitations in enhancing pixel density 3 – 6 . Recent demonstrations of vertical µLED displays have attempted to address this issue by stacking freestanding RGB LED membranes and fabricating top-down 7 – 14 , but minimization of the lateral dimensions of stacked µLEDs has been difficult. Here we report full-colour, vertically stacked µLEDs that achieve, to our knowledge, the highest array density (5,100 pixels per inch) and the smallest size (4 µm) reported to date. This is enabled by a two-dimensional materials-based layer transfer technique 15 – 18 that allows the growth of RGB LEDs of near-submicron thickness on two-dimensional material-coated substrates via remote or van der Waals epitaxy, mechanical release and stacking of LEDs, followed by top-down fabrication. The smallest-ever stack height of around 9 µm is the key enabler for record high µLED array density. We also demonstrate vertical integration of blue µLEDs with silicon membrane transistors for active matrix operation. These results establish routes to creating full-colour µLED displays for augmented and virtual reality, while also offering a generalizable platform for broader classes of three-dimensional integrated devices. We report full-colour, vertically stacked µLEDs that achieve exceptionally high array density (5,100 pixels per inch) and small size (4 µm) via a 2D material-based layer transfer technique, allowing the creation of full-colour µLED displays for augmented and virtual reality.

BackgroundFusion genes are good candidates of molecular targets for cancer therapy. However, there is insufficient research on the clinical implications and functional characteristics of fusion genes in colorectal cancer (CRC).MethodsIn this study, we analysed RNA sequencing data of CRC patients (147 tumour and 47 matched normal tissues) to identify oncogenic fusion genes and evaluated their role in CRC.ResultsWe validated 24 fusion genes, including novel fusions, by three algorithms and Sanger sequencing. Fusions from most patients were mutually exclusive CRC oncogenes and included tumour suppressor gene mutations. Eleven fusion genes from 13 patients (8.8%) were determined as oncogenic fusion genes by analysing their gene expression and function. To investigate their oncogenic impact, we performed proliferation and migration assays of CRC cell lines expressing fusion genes of GTF3A-CDK8, NAGLU- IKZF3, RNF121- FOLR2, and STRN-ALK. Overexpression of these fusion genes increased cell proliferation except GTF3A-CDK8. In addition, overexpression of NAGLU-IKZF3 enhanced migration of CRC cells. We demonstrated that NAGLU-IKZF3, RNF121-FOLR2, and STRN-ALK had tumourigenic effects in CRC.ConclusionIn summary, we identified and characterised oncogenic fusion genes and their function in CRC, and implicated NAGLU-IKZF3 and RNF121-FOLR2 as novel molecular targets for personalised medicine development.

In recent decades, global pharmaceutical companies have suffered from an R&D innovation gap between the increased cost of a new drug’s development and the decreased number of approvals. Drug repositioning offers another opportunity to fill the gap because the approved drugs have a known safety profile for human use, allowing for a reduction of the overall cost of drug development by eliminating rigorous safety assessment. In this study, we compared the transcriptional profile of LC28-0126, an investigational drug for acute myocardial infarction (MI) at clinical trial, obtained from healthy male subjects with molecular activity profiles in the Connectivity Map. We identified dyphilline, an FDA-approved drug for bronchial asthma, as a top ranked connection with LC28-0126. Subsequently, we demonstrated that LC28-0126 effectively ameliorates the pathophysiology of neutrophilic bronchial asthma in OVA LPS -OVA mice accompanied with a reduction of inflammatory cell counts in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), inhibition of the release of proinflammatory cytokines, relief of airway hyperactivity and improvement of histopathological changes in the lung. Taken together, we suggest that LC28-0126 could be a potential therapeutic for bronchial asthma. In addition, this study demonstrated the potential general utility of computational drug repositioning using clinical profiles of the investigational drug.