We have analyzed the transcriptome of Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans using RNA sequencing and identified severalantimicrobial peptide candidates. Among the peptides, named scolopendrasins, were selected based on the physicochemicalproperties of antimicrobial peptides via an in silico analysis. As a result, we evaluated the antimicrobial activities ofscolopendrasins against Gram positive and negative bacteria including Candida albicans by radial diffusion assay and colonycount assay. We also investigated the cytotoxicity of scolopendrasins through hemolysis assay. We found that the actionof scolopendrasins involved binding to the surface of microorganisms via a specific interaction with lipopolysaccharides,lipoteichoic acid, and peptidoglycans, which are components of the bacterial membrane. These results will provide a basisfor developing therapeutic agents such as peptide antibiotics.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the Allomyrina dichotoma larva (AD) on allergy and inflammation.We examined inhibitory effect of AD on allergic reactions in mast cells (RBL-2H3) activated by Compound 48 / 80and inflammatory response in macrophages (Raw 264.7) activated by LPS. Anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory actions ofAD water extract had no cytotoxicity. At these concentrations AD inhibited ẞ-hexosaminidase, tumor necrosis factor- α(TNF- α), interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-6(IL-6) and cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2). AD also inhibited the expression of inducibleNO synthase (iNOS). AD reduced the release of inflammatory cytokines including IL-4, IL-6, TNF-α, and ẞ-hexosaminidase.These results suggest that AD may be potential anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory therapeutic agent.

We recently reported the in vitro and in vivo antiobesity effects of Tenebrio molitor larvae, a traditional food in manycountries, but it remains unknown how the larvae affect appetite regulation in mice with diet-induced obesity. We hypothesizedthat the extract of T. molitor larvae mediates appetite by regulating neuropeptide expression. We investigated T. molitorlarvae extract's (TME's) effects on anorexigenesis and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress–induced orexigenic neuropeptideexpression in the hypothalami of obese mice. Central administration of TME suppressed feeding by down-regulating theexpression of the orexigenic neuropeptides neuropeptide Y and agouti-related protein. T. molitor larvae extract significantlyreduced the expression of ER stress response genes. These results suggest that TME and its bioactive components arepotential therapeutics for obesity and ER stress–driven disease states.

Programmed cell death (PCD) is decisive in eliminating affected cells in human cancers, whereas there are increasing cases of cancer-related death due to side effects of modern treatment methods. There is an urge for new methods of growth inhibition and elimination of cancer cells with a lower cytotoxicity to normal cells. Irregularity along PCD pathways plays a crucial role in cancer cell carcinogenesis. Apoptosis is a distinct cell death mechanism occurring in multicellular organisms and also called type one programmed cell death. Autophagy and paraptosis are non-apoptotic PCD occurring in multicellular organisms. Natural compounds are the fundament of pharmacological treatments, and flavonoids are natural polyphenolic compounds which are unique due to their diverse chemical structures and various biological active mechanisms like anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative and much more. This gives an increasing number of studies indicating that some flavonoids from medicinal plants could be promising candidates for new natural anticancer drugs, which attract high interests of academic researchers and advanced users. An understanding of the underlying mechanism of PCD induced by flavonoids in cancer cells is important as it plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of many diseases. This systematic review is to report flavonoids and their derivatives as new anticancer candidates to stimulate PCD with a different mechanism based on the pharmacological evidence.

The thermally induced phase separation(TIPS) method offers higher reproducibility with lower tendency for defect formation and narrower pore size distribution, rendering the method more suitable for microfiltration(MF) and ultrafiltration(UF) applications. PVDF is widely used in membrane technology due to their excellent chemical resistance and strong mechanical properties. In case of MF and UF applications, the stretching method has been applied for increasing the performance of membrane by extending pore size. In this work, the effects of dope and bore flow rates and dope composition on the tensile strength of membranes was investigated. A design of experiment(DOE) analysis was used to understand the effects of the stretching parameters such as temperature, stretching ratio and holding time on the membrane performance.

Since Loeb and Sourirajan has introduced phase inversion method for membrane fabrication, the phase separation technique became the mainstream of membrane fabrication methods. Phase inversion includes solvent evaporation, vapor induced phase separation, thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) and nonsolvent induced phase separation (NIPS). Among those, NIPS and TIPS process is widely studied and employed for membrane fabrication. Depending on the membrane fabrication processes such as NIPS and TIPS, corresponding morphology differs from macrovoid structure to spherulitic structure, respectively. In this presentation, comparison of NIPS and TIPS effect on the final membrane morphology and controlling the membrane morphology by tuning the NIPS and TIPS effect will be presented.

In order to understand evolutionary characteristics of gene rearrangement in Lepidoptera, we collected all available complete mitogenome (mitogenome) sequences registered in GenBank (274 mitogenomes from 44 families in 23 superfamilies as of August 6, 2015). It turned up six rearrangements that differ from the arrangement of ancestral insects, including that of the gelechioid Mesophleps albilinella that we sequenced in this study. The M. albilinella mitogenome has a unique gene arrangement among the Gelechioidea: ARNESF (the underline signifies an inverted gene) at the ND3 and ND5 junction, as opposed to the ARNSEF that is found in ancestral insects. Most of the rearrangements can be explained by the tandem duplication-random loss model, but inversion, which requires recombination, is also found in two cases, including M. albilinella. Excluding the MIQ rearrangement at the A+T-rich region and ND2 junction, which is found in nearly all Ditrysia, most of the remaining rearrangements found in Lepidoptera appear to be independently derived in that they are automorphic at several taxonomic scales. Current mitogenomic data are limited, particularly for congeneric data. Thus, future research focused on congenerics could clarify evolutionary independency at the generic level also.

Alfalfa weevil (Hypera postica Gyllenhal) belongs to the family Curculionidae, Order Coleoptera and it is one of invasive alien species in Korea. In Korea environment, this species was found in 2000 first time through the Korean quarantine inspections. Although various researches have been studied in the Europe, US, China and Japan, only few research has been performed in Korea. In this study, the life cycle, morphology and the host plants of Alfalfa weevil were investigated in the natural environment. Nine plants of total 28 host plant species known as the host plants were characterized as their wild host plants in Korea (6 and 3 of 9 were naturalized and native plants in Korea, respectively). The geographical distribution was very wide from south (Jeju) to north (Yeoncheon) area of the peninsula and the favorite habitats were park, cultivated and grass land. This species has been found easily anywhere because it takes common leguminous plants such as clover, chinese milk vetch and alfalfa. These results suggest that Alfalfa Weevil can be one of the most-damaging insect pests of leguminous crops when it adapts to Korean climate.

Some Japonica rice plant varieties show the resistance to the whitebacked planthopper (S. furcifera) and the varieties produce ovicidal compound, benzyl benzoate, to kill their eggs lying in the rice plant. We have tried to elucidate the mechanism for inducing the production of the benzyl benzoate by the Japonica rice varieties. The active 80% MeOH/H2O extract was chromatographed on ODS open column and separated into 6 fractions; 100% H2O, 20% MeOH/H2O, 60% MeOH/H2O, 80% MeOH/H2O, 100% MeOH, 100% EtOH. Of these 6fractions, 100% MeOH and 100% EtOH fractions evidently induced benzyl benzoate at 43.95μg/g of fresh rice plant(frp) and 31.04μg/gfrp, respectively. The active compounds were submitted to analyses by using NMR and GC- and LC-MS inorder to elucidate the structure. We find elicitors to induce with S. furcifera. The elicitors are in the female of S. furcifera and the structures of elicitors are species of phospholipid and glycerol.

Insect antennae play important roles in finding mates and in locating food source and oviposition sites. Riptortus pedestris is an important pest of soybean and sweet persimmon in Korea. The male R. pedestris adult produce the aggregation pheromone attracting the conspecific nymphs and both sexes of adults. The pheromone was known as a cue for food finding, but the 1st instar nymph can develop to the 2nd instar without food. This phenomenon may suggest that the 1st instar nymph may have different sensilla system from other instars. Thus, we investigated the morphology and distribution of antennal sensilla and antennal response to the aggregation pheromone (AG) of each nymphal stage using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Electroantennography (EAG). As expected, first instar nymph did not have sensilla trichodea 3 (T3) and chaetica 3 (Ch3) which existed in other instar nymphs. The antennae of the 1st instar nymph did not responded to AG, with no difference from control. For further elucidation of the functions of sensilla T3 and CH3, single sensillum recording to AG will be done.

The surface rheological properties of polymer monolayer show complicated non-linear viscoelastic flow phenomena when they are subjected to spreading flow. These spreading flow properties are controlled by the characteristics of flow units. The kinetics of the formation of an interfacial film obtained after spreading poly(diisobutylene maleic acid) at air-water interface were studied by measuring of the surface pressure with time. The experimental data were analyzed theoretically according to a nonlinear surface viscoelastic model. The values of dynamic modulus, static modulus, surface viscosities and rheological parameters in various area/ monomer were obtained by appling experimental data to the equation of nonlinear surface viscoelastic model.

Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 (BNT) based ceramics are considered potential lead-free alternatives for Pb(Zr,Ti)O3(PZT) based ceramics in various applications such as sensors, actuators and transducers. However, BNT-based ceramics have lower electromechanical performance as compared with PZT based ceramics. Therefore, in this work, lead-free bulk 0.99[(Bi0.5Na0.5)0.935Ba0.065](1-x)LaxTiO3-0.01SrZO3 (BNBTLax-SZ, with x = 0, 0.01, 0.02) ceramics were synthesized by a conventional solid state reaction The crystal structure, dielectric response, degree of diffuseness and electric-field-induced strain properties were investigated as a function of different La concentrations. All samples were crystallized into a single phase perovskite structure. The temperature dependent dielectric response of La-modified BNBT-SZ ceramics showed lower dielectric response and improved field-induced strain response. The field induced strain increased from 0.17% for pure BNBT-SZ to 0.38 % for 1 mol.% La-modified BNBT-SZ ceramics at an applied electric field of 6 kV/mm. These results show that Lamodified BNBT-SZ ceramic system is expected to be a new candidate material for lead-free electronic devices.