Various transition-metal catalysts supported on γ-alumina were prepared and applied for the hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) of pyridine. The NiMo/Al 2 O 3 catalyst showed higher activity than the Mo/Al 2 O 3 catalyst. On the basis of the results of reaction experiments and measurements of IR and TPR, the enhancement in the HDN activity with nickel addition could be attributed more to the improvement in the reducibility of molybdenum than to the effect of Bro ¨nsted acid site. Tungsten impregnated on the NiMo/Al 2 O 3 catalyst as a secondary promoter enhanced the catalytic activity. From the results of various characterization analyses, the positive evidences supporting the HDN activity promotion were obtained. These are the formation of more Bro ¨nsted acid sites (FT-IR), the enhanced reducibility of Mo (TPR), the increase of octahedrally coordinated Mo 6+ species (DRS), and the creation of more anion vacancy sites (ESR and NO adsorption). Apparently, all of these features are combined to give the promotional effect of tungsten in the NiMo/Al 2 O 3 catalyst for the HDN activity.

The measurement of sewing work in the labor-intensive garment industry depends considerably on the person performing the measurements, making it difficult to quantitatively define the level of skill (LS) of the sewing machine operator and the level of difficulty (LD) of the unit process. In this study, a power monitoring system attached to the sewing machine was used to remotely collect power consumption data, which were then analyzed to extract the working times for a series of sewing tasks. LS of each operator was then classified and LD of each process was analyzed in terms of working time and quality. Finally, the resulting LS and LD weight factors considered to optimize the subject garment production line were compared against those proposed by experts. The LS weight factor proposed by the experts was ~15% less than that indicated by the experimental results, whereas the LD weight factor proposed by the experts was ~15%–40% greater than that indicated by the experimental results. The results of this study suggest that the proposed method could be applied in real time to inform the arrangement of line workers to increase the productivity of a garment production line.

Larvae of Monochamus saltuarius showed normal growth and development on conifers of Pinus koraiensis, P. densiflora, Abies holophylla, Larix leptolepsis, P. bungeana, and P. rigida, respectively, but the conifers influenced significantly the body weight and the survival rate of larvae. Though the larval body weights were in a wide spectrum among treatments, growth curves of them were very similar from each other, showing continuous increase from the early larval stage to about 3 months old. The body weight was decreased slightly after the feeding period of the early 3 months. The size of larvae and adults became the largest from P. bungeana fed larvae. The mid-sized ones were from P. koraiensis, P. densiflora and A. holophylla. Small ones came from L. leptolepsis and P. rigida. The larval growth was retarded without water supply. Overall survival rates from the early stage of a larva to a fertile adult were 53.6% from P. koraiensis; 51.8%, P. densiflora; 34.7%, A. holophylla; 17.8%, P. bungeana; 16.7%, L. leptolepsis; and 12.3%, P. rigida. Adults from larvae fed the 6 species of conifers, respectively, were grown into the reproductively potent adults, which laid viable eggs. A few of overwintered larvae did not pupate and remained still as a larva until the late October of the year. Data from the field survey, the head width emerged from P. koraiensis was larger than that of L. leptolepsis. The adult emergence hole in P. koraiensis was larger also. While, the size of the emergence hole was larger in the artificially innoculated log of P. koraiensis, which was kept for a larva to be with a minimized food competition and sufficient water supply, than that of the field.

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