This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Gene flow events from genetically modified (GM) rice to adjacent non-GM rice lines naturally happen in the field. GM rice lines containing desirable agronomic traits such as tolerance to abiotic stresses and resistance to biotic stresses can be used to cross with non-GM cultivated rice and also to wild species of rice. This event can eventually lead to offspring which possess traits that allows a better chance of survival in the field. However this phenomenon has the possibility to produce undesirable effect in the environment surrounding the rice field. The objective of this study was to determine the out-crossing rate of GM rice to cultivated rice. Transgenic rice, Hwangkembyeo (containing beta-carotene enhancing gene and bar gene) and cultivated rice, Nakdongbyeo (mother plant of Hwangkembyeo) were used in this study. Results showed that most gene flow events occurred within 1 m range. In particular, gene flow events mostly happened within 30 cm, while it was rarely observed beyond 90 cm range. The maximum distance for gene flow event was observed at 6 m range however the sharp cut point distance was observed at 60-90 cm range. The prevailing gene flow direction was Northwest (NW) which coincided with the prevailing wind of Southeastern (SE) direction. Wind direction and distance were found to be the most important factors for determining rice out-crossing rate. But for more accurate prevention of GM gene flow, many factors should be considered like the local weather condition, wind direction, wind speed and flowering time.

No abstract

The laser-induced doping of amorphous copper diselenide (α-CuSe 2 ) thin film with gallium (Ga) and indium (In) was performed to control/improve their electrical and optical properties. The CuSe 2 thin films sputtering-deposited using a CuSe 2 alloy target were amorphous and remained amorphous after doping with Ga/In. Doping of group-IIIelements enhanced the absorption ability of the α-CuSe 2 thin films in the near-infrared spectral regions (800-1500 nm). The insufficient laser-irradiation time to Ga attributed the nonuniform distribution of Ga content around the surface of the α-CuSe 2 thin films, which prevented the incident light from transiting through the thin film, particularly in the visible spectral region (400-800 nm). Consequently, the absorption coefficient increased with the nonuniformly distributed specimen in the visible and near-infrared spectral regions, which improved the mean absorbance of the α-CuSe 2 thin films from 1.03 to 1.66 by decreasing the optical band gap energy from 2.50 eV to 2.10 eV in the same spectral region. The resistivity, carrier concentration and carrier mobility of the α-CuSe 2 thin films were in 3.76×10 −4 −3.83×10 −3 Ω cm, 1.41×10 20 −2.00×10 21 cm −3 and 9.9-19.4 cm 2 /Vs, respectively, regardless of doping, making these films suitable as a wide spectral range absorber layer in photovoltaic applications.

Making decisions on prices must be an important task for sellers to stay competitive in on-line markets. Because the emergence of price-comparison web sites led buyers to be more sensitive to the prices, adjusting prices became very important to on-line sellers. This study collected and analyzed the data of prices on computing peripheral devices posted at a popular web site that enabled buyers to compare the prices on the same products. By analyzing the timings of price adjustments among different sellers using Monte Carlo simulation, we explored the possibility of price coordinations among those sellers. The results indicated that online sellers adjusted their prices on a daily basis rather than a weekly basis and the tacit coordination on the price changes was identified.