Humic acid (HA) is known to consist of various kinds of polymeric organics, their detailed structures can vary depend on sample sources such as organic manure, composts, peat, and lignite brown coal, and largely exists in grassland soils. HA possesses diverse positive effects that not only increase plant growth but also improve soil fertility. Recently, we have manufactured a co-polymeric product of catechol and vanillic acid (CAVA) synthesized artificially, and found that CAVA as a HA mimic increases seed germination and salt tolerance in Arabidopsis. In this study, we examined whether HA or CAVA affects to seedling growth in alfalfa. Foliar application of HA or CAVA increased alfalfa seedling growth including aerial and in root parts. HA or CAVA dramatically enhanced size of leaf and root, whereas HA significantly displayed higher bioactivity than CAVA. Taken together, CAVA acts like as a HA mimic in alfalfa that could apply as an alternation supplement to enhance plant growth and productivity.

Humic acid (HA) is a complex organic matter found in the environments, especially in grassland soils with a high density. The bioactivity of HA to promote plant growth depends largely on its extraction sources. The quality-control of HA and the quality improvements via an artificial synthesis are thus challenging. We recently reported that a polymeric product from fungal laccase-mediated oxidation of catechol and vanillic acid (CAVA) displays a HA-like activity to enhance seed germination and salt stress tolerance in a model plant, Arabidopsis. Here, we examined whether HA or CAVA enhances the growth of Italian ryegrass seedling. Height and fresh weight of the plant with foliar application of HA or CAVA were bigger than those with only water. Interestingly, enhanced root developments were also observed in spite of the foliar treatments of HA or CAVA. Finally, we proved that HA or CAVA promotes the regrowth of Italian ryegrass after cutting. Collectively, CAVA acts as a HA mimic in Italian ryegrass cultivation, and both as a biostimulant enhanced the early growth and regrowth after cutting of Italian ryegrass, which could improve the productivity of forage crops.

A multi-disciplinary approach is used to analyze current trends in environmental and technology color research to provide better understanding of how color plays a crucial role in engineering, medical science, law, design, arts, marketing, and business. The study shows that understanding the complexities of color perception can contribute to better product and building design and the use of color therapy in medicine.

In response to growing instability and a perceived over-commercialization also of luxury brands, there is a trend among consumers to search for meaning and for experiences that feel genuine. The “humanization” of brands may feed the consumers growing desire for authenticity. This paper combines the brand personality concept and brand anthropomorphization and introduces the notion of personality-driven brand management especially for luxury brands and high-end cultural and creative businesses. After an introduction into the concept of brand personality, and with reference to identitydriven brand management, we explain what personality-driven brand management actually means. When the focal point of brand management shifts to the enlivened brand, the brand personality becomes the main source of inspiration for brand-building and influences all branding decisions. With personality-driven branding, managers may leverage the full potential of brand anthropomorphization. For instance, it can help to turn the brand into a strong character, which can spark the employee’s enthusiasm and thus also the customer’s passion for the brand. As a prerequisite of (internal) brand anthropomorphization, managers need to decide what kind of person they would like their brand to represent. For this purpose, they can consult a framework of brand personality dimensions for some guidance. A central part of this paper is a study about the major dimensions of luxury brand personality. Results suggest that there exist five distinct luxury personality dimensions including tradition, modesty, elitism, eccentricity, and sensuality. They help brand managers to develop distinct brand personalities by encouraging them to decide between contrasting traits. After presenting the major strategies to bring a luxury brand personality alive, the paper discusses the benefits of personality-based brand management and concludes with some major lessons learned.

Despite its innovative and avant-garde reputation, the luxury industry initially began showing a very low commitment to new online marketing tools and it held a conservative approach to selling when compared to other sectors. Nowadays, the context has dramatically changed and luxury brands are approaching with an increasing interest social networks as well as the online selling. This research aims to clarify the current strategic approaches of the players in the different luxury markets towards the social commerce phenomenon, from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. The purpose is to test a framework that can be used to classify luxury companies’ strategies regarding social media adoptions based on actual theories on social media. Four strategies related to the social media adoption by luxury brands have been identified: the Social brand ambassadors strategy class (low promotional content percentage and low social commerce score) includes those brands that use social media for entertainment and user engagement; the Social showcases strategy (high promotional content percentage and low social commerce score) includes those brands that use their social accounts as online catalogues; the Social infotainers strategy (low promotional content percentage and high social commerce score) includes those brands that scored high in social commerce, mainly because of the provision of informative content and brand–consumer interactions, but they were linked to more entertainment-oriented actions rather than product-related ones. Finally, the Social sellers strategy (high promotional content percentage and high social commerce score) includes those brands that have integrated social commerce into their online strategies and have subsequently exploited the potential of social media to drive online and offline sales. The database is built using original data from a content analysis of 100 luxury brands’ postings on five different social media platforms – namely Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. The total final sample included 12,132 Facebook posts, 21,216 tweets on Twitter, 1,105 YouTube videos, 10,138 Instagram pictures/videos, and 117,359 Pinterest pictures. The main findings are the following: luxury brands adopt at this stage the Social brand ambassadors and Social showcases approaches; brands belonging to the perfumery, cosmetics, jewelry and watches markets show a more developed attitude towards the social commerce; in other luxury markets, such as wine and spirits, brands still adopt a Social Brand Ambassador strategy, while managers should increase the promotional content in order develop the social commerce. The Fashion & Accessories brands show a positive relationship between the percentage of promotional content and social commerce score. This means that social commerce adoptions depend on the single brand’s strategic choices, ranging from low adoption to best practices. In general, social commerce is still not widespread; many luxury fashion brands, while presenting new collections during fashion weeks, focused on fashion shows, backstage events, and celebrities, rather than really promoting the new product lines with materials, availability, and purchasing indications. This social media approach is mainly focused on increasing brand awareness rather than increasing social commerce. If managers aim at increasing social commerce they should add direct call to action and link the contents to e-commerce market place. Automotive brands are concentrated in the Social showcases area; This sector encounters natural limitations in the introduction of social commerce due to the difficulty of selling products through the digital channel; many brands have, however, devised strategies to approach their users during the purchasing process prior to the actual transaction to take advantage of the increasing ROPO phenomenon. Conversely, the Perfumes & Cosmetics sector shows a highly fragmented approach to social commerce. The content analysis based on single post contents has shown that actually the contents are based on pictures of the products, or the brand, information on events, and a large and increasing presence of video posts based storytelling about the history of the product and the brand heritage; the most social commerce oriented posts are picture or video focused on the product. The commercial contents that aim at developing the see now, buy now approach are mainly based on video shows.

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of feed withdrawal on gastrointestinal weight, digestive condition, and carcass yield. The effects were studied in 36 HANWOO and 245 pigs. The weight of the gastrointestinal tract decreased with fasting time in both HANWOO and pigs. No significant differences in weight of HANWOO stomachs, intestinal tracts, and carcass yields were observed throughout the experimentals. Among pigs, significant differences in gastrointestinal tract weight were observed when comparing short fasting time (4 h) with long fasting time (above 12 h) (p<0.05). HANWOO and pigs showed no significant differences in carcass yield during fasting times. These results suggested that feed withdrawal for 16 and 12 hours is appropriate for HANWOO and pigs.

Abstract1It takes lots of time and labor if a worker have to measure the water quality at a certain but designated time every day in an un-automated aqua farm. In addition, if the equipment is soaked in the sea water consistently, it will be contaminated by diverse floating matters and barnacles, and it often becomes mal-functional within 2~3 months. Therefore, we need to develop a system with which the sensed data could be checked in real time and operated automatically, while preventing the contamination of the sensor, a crucial component for water quality measuring equipment, as much as possible, and increasing the replacement cycle. We have developed a non-cleaning water quality measuring equipment and its software which are used in the fishery household of offshore aqua farms. By providing the workers with a mobile application which has a function of monitoring the water quality in real time, they can check the situation directly without going to the fishery household.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of estrus synchronization to altrenogest regumate (progesterone), PMSG/hCG, and artificial insemination (AI) on galectin-3, FGF-9 gene and protein expression. The morpho-metrical parameters of the endometrium and the number of corpora lutea (CL) were recorded. RNA was isolated from endometrial, oviduct and ovary tissues of non-synchronized (Control; n = 7) and AI synchronized (regumate, PMSG/hCG; n = 7) sows. The total number of CL was higher (P<0.05) in pigs treated with regumate/PMSG/hCG. The content of gelactin-3 and FGF-9 mRNA in pre-embryonic development stages increased on particular days, in control and studied in regumate/PMSG/hCG administered pigs. Gelactin-3 and FGF-9 were affected by regumate/PMSG/hCG treatment in the both pre-embryonic development stages (P<0.001, P<0.05) and encdometrial tissue (P<0.001, P<0.01). The regumate/PMSG/hCG treatment resulted in elevated expression of gelactin-3 (P<0.001) and FGF-9 (P<0.005) in oviduct and ovary tissues in comparison to control sows. Moreover, oviduct amount of gelectin-3 mRNA was higher in regumate/PMSG/hCG sows in comparison to the control group (P<0.05), whereas, expression characteristics of gelactin-3 and FGF-9 were investigated by hematoxylin and eosin stained and immunohistochemical staining. The results showed that galectin-3 and FGF-9 were significantly shown in the endometrium, oviduct and ovary tissues of the regumate/PMSG/ hCG. Presented data show that exogenous hormones administration can affect gene and protein expression in the sow reproductive tract.

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of the addition of caffeine (alkaloid family) to the ejaculates of boar sperm quality as well as investigate their optimum concentrations for increasing the movement of sperms. Semen was collected from 9 boars by the gloved-hand technique one week interval. Semen followed by cryopreservation with egg yolk extender freezing medium using freezing protocol. The collected semen were frozen on the same day. Motility was assessed for % motile cell characteristics using computer-assisted semen analysis (CASA; SAIS SI-100, Medical supply, Korea). Frozen boar sperms were thawed in Beltsville Thawing Solution (BTS) with 5, 10, and 15mM caffeine were then incubated at 38 celsius degree for 20 minutes. In experiment 1, semen were diluted BTS and addition of different concentration of caffeine to the pre-freeze semen cryopreservation. In experiment 2, incubation of frozen-thawed sperm in BTS supplemented with different concentration of caffeine for 20 minutes improved (P<0.05) after semen cryopreservation-thawing on sperm quality. After thawing significantly increased progressive and total motility. The addition of 10 mM caffeine to cryopreserved semen after thawing significantly increased progressive and total motility compared with other treatment. These result suggest that caffeine enhanced post-thaw motility of cryopreserved boar sperm when added after thawing.

In this study, using the surface dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) produced at atmospheric pressure to improve the physiological activities of quercetin was investigated. Quercetin (at 200 ppm) was treated using air DBD with an input power of 250 W. The tyrosinase inhibition effect and total phenolic content of quercetin increased from 38.96 to 91.58% and from 134.53 to 152.93 ppm, respectively, after 20 min of plasma treatment. The antioxidant activity of quercetin treated for 20 min in the lipid models was higher than that of quercetin treated for 0, 5, and 10 min. Furthermore, plasma-treated quercetin exhibited antimicrobial activity against Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Typhimurium, and Staphylococcus aureus, whereas activity was not shown in the control. Structural modifications of the quercetin molecule induced by plasma might be responsible for the improvements in its physiological activity. These results indicate that DBD plasma could be used to enhance the physiological activity of quercetin for various applications in food.

The effects of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) or concentration treatment or sodium hydrogen carbonate addition on microbial and quality properties of cold drip liquid coffee were investigated during storage at room temperature. Cold drip liquid coffee was determined to pH, acidity, general bacteria, and Y&M (Yeast and Molds) according to HHP treatment or adding 0.2% sodium hydrogen carbonate for 40 days storage at 20°C. Also, an equivalent mixture of concentrated coffee and cold drip liquid coffee or liquid coffee with 0.2% sodium hydrogen carbonate was used for determining the sensory evaluation, due-trio and preference test. The cold drip liquid coffee with 0.2% sodium hydrogen carbonate had higher pH and lower titratable acidity than the control during 40 days storage at 20°C. Total viable cell and Y&M counts of cold drip liquid coffee added with 0.2% sodium hydrogen carbonate or treated by HHP at 300 MPa for 25 min were lower than the control during storage at 20°C. The result of the due-trio and preference tests shows that there was no significant difference between cold drip liquid coffee added to 0.2% sodium hydrogen carbonate and the control or between the equivalent mixture of concentrated coffee with cold drip liquid coffee and the control. As a results, Cold drip liquid coffee treated by HHP, concentrated by evaporation, and added to sodium hydrogen carbonate has a potential to extend a shelf life at ambient temperature storage.

To replace methyl bromide (MeBr) due to its ozone depletion properties and the life-threatening to related worker as well as fumigators, ethyl formate (EF) fumigation on exported and imported fruits and vegetables has been developed by QIA in Korea since 2005. The benefits of using ethyl formate (EF) fumigant is considered as the safest practice among the commercially available chemical alternatives. The issues was that the cylinderized EF with carbon doxide (CO2) is not enough to extend their applications in terms of fumigation cost. We have developed the cost-effective liquid EF applications with nitrogen gas and demonstrated in quarantine trials (10m3) on imported bananas. We showed the new 35 gm-3 of EF applications with inert gas (nitrogen), were completely control all stage of citrus mealybug (Planoccous citri) for 4hr fumigation at 13°C. These applications meet the quarantine guidelines and protocols in terms of efficacies to target pest and safety concern as well as satisfactions of consumers showing no damages to imported bananas. Extensively, this cost effective EF technology could be acceptable to other fruit and vegetable commodities to reduce the fumigation costs and green house gas (CO2).

Entomopathogenic fungi, widely distributed in nature, have been developed as biopesticides of agricultural pests. However, little is known about isolation method for obtaining a variety of highly virulent strains from the soil. In this work, the previously established method using mealworm (larvae of Tenebrio molitor) as a baiting system was used to efficiently isolate fungal strains from soil, and the isolated fungal library in Korea was established. To isolate entomopathogenic fungi, soil samples from 10 regions of Korea such as Iksan, Imsil, Gunsan, Yeosu, Suncheon, Gwangyang, Jinju, Hamyang, Boseong and Jangseong were collected. Of the collected soils, 21 and 34 isolates of entomopathogenic fungi were isolated from Iksan and Gunsan, respectively. The isolates were classified as genera of Metarhizium, Beauveria and Isaria. This work can suggest an effective insect pathogenic fungal isolation method

Entomopathogenic fungi have been known as promising candidates in biological control. However, a large number of conidia with higher stability should be produced for industrialization. In this work investigated the possibility of several grains for the production of thermotolerant Isaria javanica and I. fumosoroseus conidia. The fungal conidia were produced on ten grains for 14 days in Petri dish conditions. Of the ten granular substrates, millet, perilla seed and barley showed the high conidial production, 15.7 ± 8.4, 17.3 ± 5.2 and 13.5 ± 1.9 × 109 conida/g in I. javanica and 15.9 ± 0.6, 15.0 ± 0.5 and 15.0 ± 0.7 ×109 conida/g in I. fumosoroseus, respectively. However, the two strains showed relatively low thermal stability regardless of substrates, when exposed to 45℃ for 1, 2 and 3 hours. This work suggests a possible substrate for conidial production of entomopathogenic fungi with low cost.

The pea aphid Acyrthosiphom pisum (Harris) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is a pestiferous species with a worldwide distribution. We investigated the development periods and survivorship of A. pisum nymph, and longevity and fecundity of A. pisum adult. The study was conducted at five constant temperatures of 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30°C. Higher temperature threshold (TH) and lower temperature threshold (TL) were calculated by two nonlinear functions. The temperature range of A. pisum from TL to TH using empirical model (29.29) was wider than that using biophysiological model (21.85). The adult emergence frequency of A. pisum over full range of constant temperatures was simulated using developmental rat

The cowpea aphid Aphis craccivora Koch (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is an important pest on several species of legumes. We investigated the development periods and survivorship of A. craccivora nymph, and longevity and fecundity of A. craccivora adult. The study was conducted at five constant temperatures of 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30°C, respectively. The lower developmental threshold (LDT) and thermal constant (K) of A. craccivora nymph stage were estimated by linear regression. Higher temperature threshold (TH) and lower temperature threshold (TL) were calculated by biophysiological model. Developmental completion of A. craccivora nymph stage was described using a two-parameter Weibull distribution model. Life table parameters were estimated by the jackknife method.

Entomopathogenic fungi are expected to play a role as great biological control agents in the global bio-pesticide market in the future. The first step is the collection of fungal isolates and it should be a platform for the development of highly effective biopesticides. In this work, we constructed a fungal library using a mealworm pathogenecity-based fungal collection method and further characterized some isolates with high virulence. A phylogenetic tree was generated, and of the isolates 17 isolates’ biological features were characterized, such as morphology, virulence against several insect, stability of conidia for heat, production of biologically active materials, such as enzymes. This work reports an attractive entomopathogenic fungal library including the information of effective isolates in pest management.

Many turfgrass pests, Ectinohoplia rufipes, Exomala orientalis and Popillia quadriguttata, cause serious damage to grass fields in Korea. In this study, control of turfgrass pests using entomopathogenic fungi were investigated using Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis as an alternative insect. In a preliminary experiment, some Metathizium sp. showed ca. 60% virulence after 7 days exposure to the entomopathogenic fungi. Compared to the contact-exposure, overall a spray treatment showed lower control efficacy against P. brevitarsis seulensis. Furthermore, mortality of various developmental stages of P. brevitarsis seulensis was investigated under laboratory conditions. This work suggests that when treated with fungi mortality of P. brevitarsis seulensis was closely related with developmental stage. These results provide a basic information for the control of P. brevitarsis seulensis using entomopathogenic fungi

We report our research on aluminum mirror optics for future infrared astronomical satellites. For space infrared missions, cooling the whole instrument is crucial to suppress the infrared background and detector noise. In this aspect, aluminum is appropriate for cryogenic optics, because the same material can be used for the whole structure of the instrument including optical components thanks to its excellent machinability, which helps to mitigate optical misalignment at low temperatures. We have fabricated alu- minum mirrors with ultra-precision machining and measured the wave front errors (WFEs) of the mirrors with a Fizeau interferometer. Based on the power spectral densities of the WFEs, we conrmed that the surface accuracy of all the mirrors satised the requirements for the SPICA Coronagraph Instrument. We then integrated the mirrors into an optical system, and examined the image quality of the system with an optical laser. As a result, the total WFE is estimated to be 33 nm (rms) from the Strehl ratio. This is consistent with the WFEs estimated from the measurement of the individual mirrors.