Background: Several studies have discussed diverse exercise methods considered to be useful for the selective contraction of the vastus medialis oblique (VMO) muscle for the treatment of patellofemoral pain syndrome. Some studies have reported that exercise methods, including hip adduction, in closed kinetic chain exercises are more effective in terms of the muscle activation of the VMO and the timing of the muscle’s initial contraction. We focused on isometric contraction during a closed kinetic chain exercise with hip adduction. Objects: The purpose of this study was to examine muscle activation in the VMO and the vastus lateralis (VL) and the onset time difference between their initial contractions via closed kinetic chain isometric quadriceps femoris exercises including hip adduction. Methods: In total, 36 healthy subjects adopted two hip positions during isometric contraction of the quadriceps femoris in a closed kinetic chain exercise (hip neutral and hip adduction position). Statistical analyses were conducted using a paired t-test (α=.05). Results: Isometric contraction of the quadriceps femoris in a closed kinetic chain exercise caused a greater increase in VMO muscle activity in the hip adduction position [52.68±22.21 percentage of maximal voluntary isometric contraction (%MVIC)]than the hip neutral position (43.43±19.85 %MVIC). The onset time difference (VL-VMO) decreased more in the hip adduction position (-82.14±34.2 ㎳) than the hip neutral position (73.94±2.94 ㎳). Conclusion: We recommend this exercise as a clinically useful therapeutic method for patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome due to weakening of the VMO muscle and lateral inclination of the patella.

Grains are nutritious foods that richly contain fiber, vitamins and minerals but it would be difficult to chew for some elderly people with weakened chewing ability. This study was aimed to find the appropriate conditions for reducing hardness of grains by enzyme treatment. To select appropriate enzyme, each grain (white rice, brown rice, barely, sorghum, and job’s tears) was soaked for one hour in enzyme solution at optimum activation temperature. Grains were soaked for one hour in selected enzyme solution at different concentration (0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7%) under warming condition of cooker at 70℃, steamed in electric rice pressure cooker, rapidly cooled at -18℃ for one hour, placed at 20℃ for another hour, and then hardness was measured by texture analyzer. The initial hardness of white rice, brown rice, barely, sorghum, and job’s tears were 6.5 × 104, 7.1 × 104, 7.0 × 104, 7.8 × 104 and 7.7 × 104 N/m 2 , respectively. The lowest hardness of grains, 4.0 × 104, 5.0 × 104, 4.6 × 104, 5.7 × 104 and 4.7 × 104 N/m 2 were obtained with 0.3% of enzyme D solution while the hardness was not changed significantly with higher concentration. These results suggest that some hard grains treated with enzyme would become softer than white rice, and thus these grains may be used to prepare a healthier meal for elderly people having mastication problem.

The Ministry of Environment in Korea published 'The Compilation of National List of Indigenous Insect Species of the Korean Peninsula' in 1996 including 11,853 species. The National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR) originally compiled the national species list of insects to establish a national inventory of endemic biological assets with the joined efforts from all distinguished Korean taxonomists since 2008. For the convenience of scores of professional taxonomic groups participating in the project concurrently, the NIBR has developed the NIBR inventory description method and inventory system from 2008 to 2016. For nine years in this study, the NIBR has established the national insect inventory of 16,558 species including Collembola. The insect fauna of the Korean Peninsula comprises 565 families from 30 orders. The largest orders are Coleoptera (110 families, 4,318 species), Lepidoptera (67 families, 3,733 species), Hymenoptera (61 families, 3,151 species), Hemiptera (88 families, 2,013 species) and Diptera (79 families, 1,944 species). The fractions of the main insect orders in the fauna of the Korean peninsula correspond to those in the Holarctic temperate zone. And totally 13 volumes of national list of insect species in Korea were published.

A novel insect-infecting positive sense single-stranded RNA virus, Riptortus pedestris virus-1 (RiPV-1), was found in the Riptortus pedestris transcriptome data by de novo assembly and further confirmed by RACE method. The genome of RiPV-1 consists of 10,554 nucleotides (nt) excluding the poly(A) tail and contains a single large open reading frame (ORF) of 10,371 nt encoding a 3,456 aa polyprotein and flanked by 71 and 112 nt 5' and 3' noncoding regions, respectively. RiPV-1 genome contains the consensus genome organization of picorna-like RNA helicase, cysteine protease, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) array in that order from the 5' to the 3' end. From the phylogenetic analysis, RiPV-1 was clustered with unassigned insect RNA viruses, APV and KFV, which suggests that these three insect picorna-like viruses might constitute a novel group of insect-infecting RNA viruses. Tissue tropism analysis revealed that RiPV-1 was relatively abundant in the thorax, abdomen, midgut and fat body. Interestingly, RiPV-1 replication was enhanced by Beauveria bassiana JEF-007 infection that was quantified using qRT-PCR. This study identified a novel insect-infecting virus and provided further insight into the relationship between virus, fungus and host.