Through density functional theory calculations, to provide insight into the origins of the catalytic activity of Au nanoparticles (NPs) toward oxidation reactions, we have scrutinized the oxygen adsorption chemistry of 9 types of small unsupported Au NPs of around 1 nm in size (Au13, Au19, Au20, Au25, Au38, and Au55) looking at several factors (size, shape, and coordination number). We found that these NPs, except for the icosahedral Au13, do not strongly bind to O2 molecules. Energetically most feasible O2 adsorption that potentially provides high CO oxidation activity is observed in the icosahedral Au13, our smallest Au NP. In spite of the chemical inertness of bulk Au, the structural fluxionality of such very small Au NP enables strong O2 adsorption. Our results can support recent experimental findings that the exceptional catalytic activity of Au NPs comes from very small Au species consisting of around 10 atoms each.

Aedes albopictus is one species of mosquito transmitting flavivirus causing Dengue, Zika, and West Nile fever. Although it is an important disease vector, the genetic study of Ae. alpopictus populations has not been undertaken yet in South Korea. Here, we investigated the genetic variation of 99 Ae. albopictus individuals collected from 29 sites in nine provinces in 2016, through mitochondrial COI gene analysis. Haplotype analyses revealed seven haplogroups in South Korea. The main haplogroup, comprising 76 individuals (77.8%), was genetically identical to the one from Nagasaki. Two groups from Jeju Island (11) and the southern coast of South Korea (nine) were closely related to different Ae. albopictus strains from Kumamoto and Guangdong/Fujian, respectively. However, the others (four) were distinct from these two countries. No geographic divisions of populations were found in the study regions. The results suggest the possibility that the currently prevalent Ae. albopictus in South Korea, represents a part of the descendants that originated from nearby countries. However, more comprehensive investigations are needed to explain its movement routes.

Dengue is the most important arboviral disease in tropical and subtropical areas where 2.5 billion people are at risk of infection. Aedes albopictus will be a major vector transmitting dengue virus in Korea, where this virus overseas inflow is possible. We collected mosquitoes in Jeju, Busan, Gunsan, and Incheon using BG sentinel trap from April to October in 2016. Collected mosquitoes were conducted virus detection using real-time PCR method and analysis bloodmeal source of Ae. albopictus. A total of 15 species comprising 7 genera were identified and 4,854 female mosquitoes collected. The most dominant species ratio (SR) was 52.9% (Culex pippins complex) followed by 20.3% (Ae. albopictus), 10.8% (Ae. vexans nipponi) and Ochlerotatus dorsalis (3.8%). Dengue virus was not detected. Bloodmeal source of Ae. albopictus was mammals (80.9%) followed by birds (18.6) and amphibians (0.5).

We performed a survey for flavivirus infection and distribution of Aedes albopictus that known as Zika and Dengue virus vector using black–light trap and BG-sentinel trap around urban area in Korea. Mosquitoes were collected in 27 cities during March to November (twice a month) year 2016. Total numbers of mosquitoes collected 102,102 including 19 species 8 genera during collecting period. Total 21,467 Ae. albopictus was collected that 20,961(24.3%) by BG-sentinel trap and 506 (3.2%) by Black-light trap in urban area. Trap index(trap/night) of Ae. albopictus was showed highest in Hamyang (TI:992.3) and lowest in Taebaek (TI:0.3) there was only collected by Black-light trap. A total of 894 pools from all collecting Ae. albopictus were performed a Flavivirus detection. Flavivirus was not detected during study period. This study may provide basic information for surveillance of imported diseases (include Zika virus) and vectors in Korea.

West Nile Virus (WNV) is transmitted by infected mosquitoes. Vector mosquitoes usually acquire these pathogens from feeding on an infected host, and transmit the pathogens to a naive host during feeding events. To understand the virus transmission dynamics and to survey WNV throughout country, the present study has been conducted. We collected mosquitoes in Jeju, Busan, Gunsan, and Incheon using CDC light trap and BG Sentinel trap from April to October in 2016. Among collected mosquitoes, blood-fed mosquitoes were conducted blood meal identification assay and the other mosquitoes were subjected to virus detection using real-time PCR method. A total of 29,603 mosquitoes representing 8 genera and 19 species were collected. The most dominant species was Culex pippins complex (35.0%) followed by Cx. bitaeniorhynchus (12.2%), Armigeres subalbatus (11.2%), Aedes albopictus (10.8%), Ae. vexans nipponii (10.3%), and Ochlerotatus dorsalis (8.4%). The blood meal source were of mammal (70.4%), birds (29.0%) and amphibian (0.6%). WNV was not detected in any mosquitoes.

We conducted a investigation for distribution and flavivirus infection of mosquitoes using black –light trap around Incheon international airport there was possible overseas inflow caused by global warming in Korea. Mosquitoes were collected once a week April to October during 6 years (2009~2015). The numbers of mosquitoes collected in Oseong and Eurwang mountain were 8,969 and 7,978 including 12 species 7 genera respectively during collecting period. Culex pipiens complex was dominant species in two collecting area as 4,621(51.5%) in Oseong and 3,761(47.1%) in Eurwang mountain. A total of 16 pools from 88 Aedes albopictus were performed a Dengue virus (DENV) detection and total 628 pools from 11,146 other mosquitoes performed a West nile virus (WNV) detection. Flavivirus was not detected during study period. This study may provide basic information for surveillance of imported diseases and vectors in Korea.

Dengue is the most important arboviral human infection worldwide. Approximately 50-100 million cases occur annually and more than 2.5 billion people are at risk of infection. This virus is possibility of overseas inflow to be high in Korea. We collected mosquitoes in Jeju, Busan, Gunsan, and Incheon using BG Sentinel trap from April to August in 2016. Collected mosquitoes were conducted virus detection using real-time PCR method. A total of 15 species comprising 7 genera were identified and 3,696 female mosquitoes collected. The most dominant species ratio (SR) was 49.4% (Culex pippins complex) followed by 21.8% (Aedes albopictus), 13.6% (Ae. vexans) and Ochlerotatus dorsalis (4.8%). Dengue virus was not detected in any mosquitoes until now.

West Nile Fever is one of most serious disease spreading throughout world since 1990. West Nile Virus (WNV) is transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The possibility of overseas inflow of this virus seems to be high in Korea. To know the WNV infection of mosquitoes, we collected mosquitoes in Jeju, Busan, Gunsan, and Incheon using CDC light trap and BG Sentinel trap from April to August in 2016. Collected mosquitoes were conducted virus detection using real-time PCR method. A total of 22,632 mosquitoes representing 9 genera and 18 species were collected. The most dominant species was Culex pippins complex (36%) followed by Aedes vexans (13%), Ae. albopictus (10%) and Ochlerotatus koreicus (10%). WNV was not detected in any mosquitoes until now.

There are over 3,000 different species of mosquitoes throughout the world; currently 56 species are reported in Korea. Mosquitoes can act as vectors for many disease-causing viruses and parasites during blood sucking. Various species of mosquitoes are estimated to transmit various types of disease to more than 700 million people annually in Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico, Russia, and much of Asia, with millions of resultant deaths. At least two million people annually die of these diseases, and the morbidity rates are many times higher still. To prevent the spread of diseases, KNIH (Korea National Institute of Health) used three categorized methods; identifying or taxonomic analysis of mosquitoes, detecting virus caring mosquitoes, and detecting malaria from Anopheline mosquitoes. We have proved that taxonomic analysis using DNA barcording method (COI gene) is useful to complement identification of mosquito species. In detecting virus, we have reported Cx. orientalis as a new potential Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) vector. We also reported that the Anopheline mosquito species composition and Plasmodium vivax infection rates in malaria hot spot in Korea.

Aedes albopicuts, known as asian tiger mosquito or forest mosquito, is characterized by its black and white strips on legs and body. Ae. albopictus is an important vector mosquito for the transmission of many viral pathogens such as dengue fever and chikungunya fever. Unlike other mosquito, Ae. albopictus attacks people mainly during the daytime in the forest. To evaluate the diel activity of Ae. albopictus, three times mosquito collecting were conducted using BG Sentinel trap with dry ice in bamboo forest in Damyang-gun, Jeoullanam-do, in South Korea from August to September, 2009. Captured mosquitoes were counted and released every one hour during 25 hours experiment time. The result showed that Ae. albopictus activity began with sun rising at approximately 09:00, with peak in the early evening between 16:00 to 19:00, and ended with sunset at 21:00. Among the several factors affecting on the mosquito activity, light intensity seems to be a main factor. Especially, if the light intensity is over some threshold, it negatively effects on the activity of Ae. albopictus.

Habitats for migratory birds provide good blood source for blood sucking insects including mosquitoes, which may lead to high population mosquito species. This study was intended to know mosquito fauna in habitats for migratory birds that have preference for bird’s blood. We selected 7 locations for migratory birds (Ansan: a great reedy marsh in lake of Shihwa; Cheonan, Gyeongju, and Pyeongtaek: pine forest; Seosan: a reclaimed land near bay of Cheonsu ; Ulsan: great bamboo forest around Teahwa river) and subdivided each location with four habitats (forest, swamp, cow shed and downtown area) as mosquito collecting site. We used two types of trap for mosquito collection such as CDC black light trap and BG Sentinel trap. Additionally, we use black light and dry ice as an attractive source, respectively. A total of 27,615 mosquitoes representing 9 genera and 18 species were collected. In Ansan, 9 genera and 17 species were collected and in the other locations only 11 to 12 species. Representing by habitats shows this; in forest 9 genera and 17 species, in swamp 8 genera and 16 species, in cow shed 6 genera and 12 species, in downtown 8 genera and 17 species. The dominant species was Culex pipiens (60%) followed by Aedes vexans (11%), Anopheles spp. (8%), Aedes albopictus (7%), and Armigeres subalbatus (5%).

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a mosquito-borne pathogen, is the most important cause of viral encephalitis worldwide. The major vector mosquito of this virus, known as Culex tritaeniorynchus, is mainly live in paddy rice field in Korea. So Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a disease of rural areas. During urbanization, rice cultivated land has decreased also resulting the number of JE patients has decreased. However, recent outbreak of JE in Korea 2010, the patients distribution was not related with that of the mosquito. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate involving other mosquito species in the transmission of JEV. Five localities, JE reported in 5 years, have been selected to collect mosquitoes according their habitats (mountain, swap, cow shed, and downtown area) in 2012. Total 22,774 collected mosquitoes were pooled by species, date and site of collection. Of the 1,282 pools, eight (five were from Culex orientalis, one from Culex pipiens complex, and two from Aedes vexans) were found positive for flavivirus RNA in SYBR Green I-based real-time RT-PCR assay. The results of sequences blasting on NCBI showed that the flaviviruses from Cx. orientalis and Cx. pipiens complex were identified as JEV genotype V.

Culex orientalis is belonging to the mimeticus group of the genus Culex and shows various patterns of white pale spots on the wing and wing venation which cause an ambiguity to identify as this species. To confirm whether or not these variations are limited within the species, we observed 230 Cx. orientalis specimens collected in Korea and divided them into 51 variations according to their wing spots patterns. To compare a molecular similarity between the variations, the ITS2 regions of five major variations were analyzed. The results showed that there are more than 97% nucleotide sequence similarity between the variations as well as within a variation. This results suggest that the wing variations of Cx. orientalis are limited a within-species divergence. To further confirm, ITS2 regions of other species (Cx. mimeticus and Cx. jacksoni) in the mimetiucs group will be analyzed and compared with those of Cx. orientalis variations.

  Recent advances in mobile computing technologies and platform-independent information systems have enabled to realize a ubiquitous environment. Community computing has been developed as a useful tool for realizing collaborative services in a ubiquitous

This paper proposes a model and train method that can real-time detect objects and distances estimation based on a monocular camera by applying deep learning. It used YOLOv2 model which is applied to autonomous or robot due to the fast image processing speed. We have changed and learned the loss function so that the YOLOv2 model can detect objects and distances at the same time. The YOLOv2 loss function added a term for learning bounding box values x, y, w, h, and distance values z as 클래스ification losses. In addition, the learning was carried out by multiplying the distance term with parameters for the balance of learning. we trained the model location, recognition by camera and distance data measured by lidar so that we enable the model to estimate distance and objects from a monocular camera, even when the vehicle is going up or down hill. To evaluate the performance of object detection and distance estimation, MAP (Mean Average Precision) and Adjust R square were used and performance was compared with previous research papers. In addition, we compared the original YOLOv2 model FPS (Frame Per Second) for speed measurement with FPS of our model.

This paper presents a probabilistic head tracking method, mainly applicable to face recognition and human robot interaction, which can robustly track human head against various variations such as pose/scale change, illumination change, and background clutters. Compared to conventional particle filter based approaches, the proposed method can effectively track a human head by regularizing the sample space and sequentially weighting multiple visual cues, in the prediction and observation stages, respectively. Experimental results show the robustness of the proposed method, and it is worthy to be mentioned that some proposed probabilistic framework could be easily applied to other object tracking problems.