The green peach aphid, Myzus persicae Sulzer, is one of the most important pests affecting protected and open-grown crops, because they cause direct damage by feeding on crops and indirect damage as virus vectors. It has recently become a serious problem because of the continuous use of insecticide resulting in resistance among green peach aphid population. Thus, the development of entomopathogenic fungi as aphid biocontrol agents has received increasing interest as part of integrated control strategies. In this study, we report the screening result of pathogenic fungi for the control of green peach aphid. Initial screenings were performed using 347 isolates of putative pathogenic fungi from Korea soils. As results, 20 isolates of entomopathogenic fungi were isolated from cadavers of green peach aphid supporting fungal conidiation. These isolates were identified as three strains of Lecanicillium attenuatum, nine strains of Beauveria bassiana, one strain of Metarhizium anisopliae, one strain of Metarhizium flavoviride, five strains of Paecilomyces lilacinus, one strain of Aspergillus sp. by microscopic examination, genetic sequencing of the ITS region and Universally Primed PCR (UP-PCR). Based on the screening results, twenty isolates were tested for their pathogenicity against adult green peach aphid. All fungal isolates were pathogenic to green peach aphid but mortality varied with isolates. These entomopathogenic fungi may be useful to develop eco-friendly insecticide to control green peach aphid.

The polyhedrin is responsible to form polyhedra of nucleopolyhedrovirus(NPV) and highly conserved in most completely sequenced in lepidopteran NPVs. Previously, we have reported that the substitution of polyhedrin of Autographa californica NPV(AcNPV) with that of Spodoptera exigua NPV(SeNPV) or Bombyx mori NPV(BmNPV) result the change of polyhedra morphology. In this study, we investigated the influence of changed polyhedra morphology to the virulence of AcNPV. The recombinant AcNPVs were propagated in Spodoptera frugiperda clone 9, 21 cells and S. exigua larvae. Each collected recombinant polyhedra were used in bioassays using S. exigua larvae. The recombinant AcNPVs show that difference virulence according to the polyhedra morphologies. Internal and external morphological features of each recombinant AcNPV were also compared on the electron microscope. Our results suggest that the morphology of polyhedra influence the virulence of NPV and is well worth considering for the development viral insecticide.

It is expected that the successful nationwide reforestation and the increased temperature would greatly change butterfly fauna in South Korea. We compared current data (2002~2007) regarding abundance and presence of butterfly species at two sites in the central portion of the Korean Peninsula to data from late 1950s and early 1970s for the same sites. The expected changes were documented by abundance change of butterflies at two study sites in the previous study. Using the same data, the greatly changed species and the change of species presence were analyzed. Population changes of 99 butterfly species which occurred at both sites were significantly correlated between two sites. The greatly increased species included three Southern (S) species and one Northern (N) species. However, the greatly declined species included five N species and no S species. This change is coincided with the expectation from the northward movements of butterfly species due to global warming. The current status of the greatly changed species was discussed on the review with other studies. The binary data(presence/absence) in present study support the expected changes of butterfly species based on global warming and reforestation. The interactive effect of two environmental changes was also recognized as like the change of abundance in the previous study.

The entomopathogenic fungi were an important natural pathogenic of insects that has been developed as potential biological control agents for many important agricultural, forest and medical pests. Several these fungi produce a wide range of secondary metabolites with high therapeutic value as antibiotics, cytotoxic substances, insecticides, compounds that promote or inhibit growth, attractor and repellent. Therefore, this study was performed to select the antibacterial activity of liquid culture filtrates of 347 entomopathogenic fungi form Korea soils against two pathogenic bacteria including Ralstonia solanacearum and Escherichia coli using novel method which represents a quick and easily applicable tool obtaining large number of samples. As results, eight-five strains (24%) and seventy-six strains (22%) of these fungal metabolites produced anti-R. solanacearum and anti-E. coli compounds, respectively. The preferential antibacterial activity against R. solanacearum and E. coli gives evidence that these entomopathogenic fungal metabolites might be useful as an agent for bacteria control and the technique was simple to operate and allowed a large number of samples to be handled concurrently.

Pesticide application pattern for agricultural insect pest was modeled and simulated by temperature change scenarios using DYMEX simulator. For modeling pesticide application pattern, we evaluated bioassay using two-spotted spider mites (TSSM) in vitro. Four separated bioassay was evaluated at four different temperature conditions (20, 25, 30, and 35℃). Selected four commercial pesticides were Acrinathrin-Spiromesifen mixture, Fenpropathrin, Abamectin, and Azocyclotin, respectively. All the pesticide was used its recommended dose, except Abamectin (1/10 of recommended dose). Each mortality of TSSM were counted after 24 and 48 hours. Based on the bioassay results, increasing temperature made decreasing mortality in Acrinathrin-Spiromesifen mixture and Fenpropathrin, whereas increasing mortality in Abamectin and Azocyclotin, respectively. A TSSM model was developed and simulated under four temperature increasing scenarios (present condition, average 1, 2, and 3℃ increased conditions) using DYMEX simulator. The DYMEX results showed that the pesticides application pattern were different among four pesticides under climate change scenario. In conclusion, the pesticide application should be changed for sound management of agricultural insect pest under climate change scenario.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the relationship between in vitro maturation and plasminogen activators (PAs) activity on porcine cumulus-oocytes complexes (COCs) exposed to oxidative stress. When COCs were cultured in maturation medium with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), the proportion of the germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) and oocytes maturation were decreased with addition of H2O2, and were significantly (p<0.05) lower in medium with 0.1 mM H2O2 than control group. Also, the rate of degenerated oocytes was increased in as H2O2 concentration increased. When COCs were cultured for 48 h, three plasminogen-dependent lytic bands were observed: tissue-type PA (tPA); urokinase-type PA (uPA); and tPA-PA inhibitor (tPA-PAI). PA activity was quantified using SDS-PAGE and zymography. When H2O2 concentration was increased, tPA and tPA-PAI activities also increased in porcine oocytes cultured for 48 h, but not uPA. In other experiment, embryos were divided into three groups and cultured in (1) control medium, (2) control medium with 1.0 mM H2O2 and (3) control medium with 1.0 mM H2O2 along with catalase in concentrations of 0.01, 0.1, and 1.0 mg/ml, respectively. H2O2 decreased the rate of GVBD and maturation in porcine COCs but catalase revealed protective activity against oxidative stress caused by H2O2. In this experiment, tPA and tPA-PAI activities were higher in media with 1.0 mM H2O2 alone. Increasing concentration of catalase decreased tPA and tPA-PAI activities in porcine oocytes. These results indicate that the exposure of porcine follicular oocytes to ROS inhibits oocytes maturation to metaphase-II stage and increase the oocytes degeneration. Also, we speculated that increased ROS level may trigger tPA and tPA-PAI activities in porcine oocytes matured in vitro.

This paper aims to provide guidelines on developing English language proficiency (ELP) tests based on the experience from ELP assessments in the U.S. after the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). While there might be substantial differences between the content and purpose of ELP tests developed from country to country, there are, however, areas that experts in charge of ELP test development in other countries can benefit from. The NCLB legislation in the U.S. made the assessment of English language learners (ELL) students’ level of proficiency in English mandatory once a year and provided useful guidelines for developing ELP assessments. This mandate, along with its useful guidelines, helped improve the quality of ELP assessment significantly and led to the development of several batteries of ELP assessments either through consortia of states or by test publishers in the U.S. The newly developed assessments were based on states’ ELP standards. They incorporated the concept of academic language which is an essential requirement for ELL students’ performance in the academic content areas, and were tested in extensive pilot and field studies. Some implications were drawn from such improvements for ELL assessment and accountability not only in the U.S. but in other countries including Korea.

Historically the rise of contagious diseases and epidemics has been mainly caused by lack of food safety knowledge and negligence in personal hygiene. Food poisoning is an example that have been caused by lack of proper knowledge in food safety and personal hygiene. In order to prove this hypothesis, our team distributed a total of 225 survey sheets to middle school students. Survey questions mainly focused on the students' food safety knowledge, personal hygiene and regular dietary habits. We used 12 items to determine the stages of change in teenagers and divided into 3 stages of change: precontemplation stage (poor problem recognition), contemplation and preparation stage (some problem recognition), and action stage. Out of the 225 students surveyed, 105(47.1%) were male and 118 (52.9%) were female; 44.0% were in 7th grade, 33.0% in 8th grade, and 24.0% in 9th grade. In stages of change model, 3.8% were classified in pre-contemplation stage, 31.1% in preparation stage, and 65.1% in action stage. The awareness of the significance of food safety has a strong positive correlation with the stages of change food safety behavior (P<0.001), which suggesting our questionnaires regarding stages of change and food safety behavior were quite credential. Stages of change were also correlated with the consumption of unsanitary foods (P<0.01) and with the frequent hand washing (P<0.05). The stages of change showed a positive correlation with the food safety knowledge level (P<0.05). The four questions (out of 10) with the least percentage of correct answers were questions about the meaning of Norovirus (23.6%), the meaning of expiration date (43.6%), the meaning of food poisoning (36.4%), and proper food-handling (36.0%).

This study examines the effects of lightemitting diode (LED) light and temperature on lettuce growth. For plant growth, we used an LED bar composed of red, white and blue LEDs (4:1:2). Six types of cultivation equipment were used to measure the temperature. To compare their effects, the heights of the lettuces and the water temperatures were measured. The results demonstrated that the lettuce growth was optimal at 25ºC.