Mirinae is the most diverse subfamily within the family Miridae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera), and includes more than 4,000 species. In Korea, mirids were first recorded from Jeju Island in the mid-1960s. Since that study, numerous plant bug species from the Korean peninsula have been newly recognized and described. Previously, 101 species of Mirini were recorded from Korean peninsula. In this study, we provide an additional information of Mirini in Korea with a description of new species and new records.

Bemisia tabaci is a vector of Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) but Trialeurodes vaporariorum is not. To determine the effect of TYLCV acquisition on vector and non-vector, we compared various physiological characteristics between two species. Our results showed that TYLCV acquisition significantly affected B. tabaci but not T. vaporariorum. The B. tabaci increased susceptibility against thermal stress but weakened chill coma recovery, shortening of longevity, low fecundity and abbreviated developmental time by virus acquisition. At the molecular level, B. tabaci increased hsp70 and hsp90 levels by TYLCV ingestion. However, T. vaporariorum did not shown any changes of those characteristics. Therefore, the physiological manipulation of TYLCV was specific to vector species but not non-vector species.

본 연구는 공기주입 이중피복온실과 관행 이중피복온실의 생육환경과 단열성능을 비교하기 위하여 수 행하였다. 두 온실의 온도, 상대습도, 포차, 이산화탄소농도, 일사량, 딸기 생산량 및 난방연료소비량을 비교하 였다. 공기주입온실이 관행온실보다 야간에 상대습도가 더 높고 포차는 더 낮게 나타나 딸기의 생육에 좋지 않은 환경을 보여주었다. 이산화탄소농도는 공기주입온실이 관행온실보다 더 높게 나타났으며, 이는 공기주입 온실이 더 밀폐되어 있어 환기량이 적기 때문인 것으로 판단된다. 관행온실의 광투과율이 77%로 공기주입온실 의 72%보다 더 높아 관행온실의 광환경이 더 우수한 것으로 나타났다. 관행온실의 딸기 생산량이 더 높게 나 타났으며, 이는 관행온실의 생육환경이 공기주입온실보다 더 우수한 결과로 판단된다. 난방연료는 공기주입온 실에서 더 적게 소모되어 공기주입온실의 단열성능이 더 우수한 것으로 나타났다.

This study was designed to determine the effect of monosodium glutamate (MSG) on in vitro maturation (IVM) of oocytes and early development of parthenogenesis (PA) embryos in pigs. Each IVM and IVC medium was supplemented with various concentrations (0, 0.1, 0.5 and 5 mM) of MSG and non-essential amino acids (NEAA) depending on the experimental design. Immature pig oocytes were matured for 44 h and then oocytes reached metaphase II (MII) stage were electrically activated to induce parthenogenesis (PA). When immature oocytes were treated with MSG in the absence of NEAA during IVM, nuclear maturation (83.1-87.1%), intra-oocyte glutathione content, cumulus expansion, and cleavage (91.4-93.4%) of PA embryos were not influenced by MSG treatment at all concentrations. However, blastocyst formation of PA embryos was significantly increased by 5.0 mM MSG (45.3 ± 6.2%) compared to control (25.6 ± 3.4%). MSG treatment during IVM in the presence of NEAA did not show significant effect on nuclear maturation of oocytes and blastocyst formation after PA while 0.5 mM MSG (89.3 ± 1.9%) decreased (P < 0.05) cleavage of PA embryos compared to 0.1 mM MSG (94.6 ± 1.1%). When PA embryos were treated for 7 days with MSG during IVC, 5.0 mM MSG significantly decreased blastocyst formation (27.8 ± 4.9%) compared to no treatment (41.4 ± 1.9%) while no decrease in blastocyst formation was observed in 0.1 and 0.5 mM (37.4 ± 3.4% and 34.4 ± 2.6%, respectively). Our results demonstrated that 5 mM MSG in a NEAA-free chemically defined maturation medium showed positive effect on PA embryonic development while 5 mM MSG treatment during IVC was deleterious to PA embryonic development in pigs.

Mitochondrial dysfunction is found in oocytes and transmitted to offspring due to maternal obesity. Treatment of obese mothers with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress inhibitors such as salubrinal (SAL) can reverse the mitochondrial dysfunction and result in normal embryonic development. Pig oocytes have also shown ER stress mostly in metaphase II stage. ER stress in oocytes may hinder the in vitro production of pig embryos. This study investigated the effect of ER stress inhibition by SAL treatment during in vitro maturation (IVM) of porcine oocytes at 1, 10, 50 and 100 nM concentrations. Firstly, we tested various concentrations of SAL. SAL at 10 nM showed higher (P < 0.05) developmental competence to the blastocyst stage (55.6%) after parthenogenesis (PA) than control (44.2%) while not different from other concentrations (49.2, 51.6, and 50.8% for 1, 50, and 100 nM, respectively). Secondly, we performed time-dependent treatment at 10 nM of SAL for IVM of oocytes. It revealed that treatment with SAL during 22 to 44 h of IVM significantly improved PA embryonic development to the blastocyst stage compared to control (40.5, 46.3, 51.7 and 60.2% for control, 0 to 22 h, 22 to 44 h and 0 to 44 h of IVM, respectively, P < 0.05). Glutathione (GSH) content is an indicator of cytoplasmic maturation of oocytes. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have a harmful effect on developmental competence of oocytes. For this, we determined the intraoocyte levels of GSH and ROS after 44 h of IVM. It was found that SAL increased intraoocyte GSH level and also decreased ROS level (P < 0.05). Finally, we performed somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) after treating oocytes with 10 nM SAL during IVM. SAL treatment significantly improved blastocyst formation of SCNT embryos compared to control (39.6% vs. 24.7%, P < 0.05). Our results indicate that treatment of pig oocytes with ER stress inhibitor SAL during IVM improves preimplantation development PA and cloned pig embryos by influencing cytoplasmic maturation in terms of increased GSH content and decreased ROS level in IVM pig oocytes.

In South Korea, increase in kimchi import from China has emphasized the importance of noticing the origin of production area, largely because of the price and safety concerns. Nevertheless, identification of it depends on a complex physicochemical method. Hence, the objective of this study is to develop a statistical algorithm applicable for analyzing volatile compounds measured by electronic nose so that the device can be used for simple classification of kimchi by its production origin. Discriminant function analysis (DFA), one of multi-variate analysis, was mainly used for analyzing big-size data of volatile compounds detected from kimchi produced either in South Korea or China. Result showed that DFA could completely separate 69 varieties of kimchi by its origin of production (39 from South Korea and 30 from China). This result suggests that volatile compounds can be an index for identifying origin of kimchi and consequently, electronic nose is an optimal option for identifying origin of kimchi production when combined with multi-variate statistics.

In this study, Bi-Sb-Te thermoelectric materials are produced by mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). To examine the influence of the milling atmosphere on the microstructure and thermo-electric (TE) properties, a p-type Bi-Sb-Te composite powder is mechanically alloyed in the presence of argon and air atmospheres. The oxygen content increases to 55% when the powder is milled in the air atmosphere, compared with argon. All grains are similar in size and uniformly, distributed in both atmospheric sintered samples. The Seebeck coefficient is higher, while the electrical conductivity is lower in the MA (Air) sample due to a low carrier concentration compared to the MA (Ar) sintered sample. The maximum figure of merit (ZT) is 0.91 and 0.82 at 350 K for the MA (Ar) and MA (Air) sintered samples, respectively. The slight enhancement in the ZT value is due to the decrease in the oxygen content during the MA (Ar) process. Moreover, the combination of mechanical alloying and SPS process shows a higher hardness and density values for the sintered samples.