The revitalization of e-business via Internet brings big changes to the postal business, and leads to a tremendous increase of heavy and large sized postal mails with continuing growth of home delivery business. Thus, even though the number of intermediate storages for mail delivery that mailmen use for picking up mails in the middle of mail delivery has been being increased, it has still many problems such as insufficient number and size of the storages as well as avoidance of mail keeping of trust agents. It is necessary that safety of mail keeping, seamless mail delivery, and individual parcel pick-up process reestablishment should be made through an improved counter plan for the problems described previously. This study presents the efficient and right operational plan for the intermediate storage for mail delivery with providing the number and size of intermediate storages per mail delivery sequence according to four different types of post offices.

This study aims to address the effect of interferential current therapy and thereby to provide basic resources to physical therapies for internal medicine by identifying symptoms for functional dyspepsia and serum gastrin level that shows gastric motility. Following results were obtained by performing interferential current therapy to 16 subjects composed of 8 for functional dyspepsia group and 8 for control group for 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week, for 6 weeks. In control group, serum gastrin level was significantly( p<.01), lowered after the therapy whereas there was no significant difference observed in all questions from questionnaire for symptoms of functional dyspepsia between before and after the therapy. In functional dyspepsia group, serum gastrin level was significantly(p<.01), lowered after the therapy and there was also significant(p<.01) reduction in every question from questionnaire for symptoms of functional dyspepsia between before and after the therapy. There was more significant decrease in serum gastrin level and reduction in questionnaire for symptoms of functional dyspepsia in the functional dyspepsia group compared to the control group(p<.01). This study confirms the interferential current therapy as an effective therapeutic method for internal diseases including functional dyspepsia since it not only improves the symptoms of functional dyspepsia but also allows the gastric motility close to normal.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of partial replacement (40.0%) of sodium chloride by potassium chloride, potassium lactate and calcium ascorbate on quality characteristics of cooked pork ham during cold storage. The cooked pork hams with partial replacement of sodium chloride by potassium chloride and potassium lactate had lower lightness (L*) and higher bitterness than others (p <0.05). However, redness (a*), yellowness (b*) and overall acceptability of sensory properties were not different among the treatments (p >0.05). The partial replacement of sodium chloride by all substitutes leads to increase tenderness (p <0.05). There are no problems in microbiological stability and lipid oxidation of cooked pork hams with 40% replacement of sodium chloride by potassium chloride, potassium lactate and calcium ascorbate during cold storage. Therefore, it is possible to use potassium chloride, potassium lactate and calcium ascorbate as partial substitutes of sodium chloride in cooked pork ham.

Brucellosis is an important bacterial zoonosis in humans and domestic animals. Brucella spp. are taken up, and survive within non-professional and professional phagocytes. In common belief, diabetes mellitus increases susceptibility to pathogenic infection. In this study, Brucella (B.) abortus was inoculated into a diabetic animal model, db/db mice, in order to show the course of brucellosis in diabetic state. The liver proliferation, bacterial burden of the liver, level of cytokines in serum and macrophage migration into liver, were investigated at 14 days post-infection. In comparison with the uninfected control mice, the results revealed that the weight of the liver of infected db/db mice was higher but with lower bacterial load in this organ. The level of MCP-1 mRNA expression in the liver was lower, the levels of IL-12p70, IL-10, TNF-α and IFN-γ in serum was significantly higher and the macrophages migration was significantly lower in infected mice than in the control group. In conclusion, this present study suggested that MCP-1 suppression by B. abortus infection may inhibit the macrophages migration, and consequently may induce to abrogate the bacterial survival in db/db mouse liver. Furthermore, the increased inflammatory cytokines may contribute to inhibition of B. abortus proliferation in diabetic mice.

An entomopathogenic bacterium, Xenorhabdus nematophila (Xn), is symbiotic to a nematode, Steinernema carpocapsae, and exhibits high pathogenicity to lepidoptera insects. Its metabolites released into the bacterial culture broth and also virulent in oral especially when they are treated with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). This study devised a high efficacy microbial insecticide by combining Xn culture broth and Bt. Bt kurstaki (Btk) exhibited relatively higher pathogenicity to Plutella xylostella than Spodoptera exigua larvae. By contrast, Bt aizawai (Bta) showed a reverse pathogenicity pattern. Phase Ⅰ type of Xn (XnK1) was isolated from S. carpocapsae Pochun and exhibited high pathogenicity than phase Ⅱ bacteria. Three bacterial mixtures of Bta+XnK1, Btk+XnK1, and Bta+Btk+XnK1 were prepared and analyzed in their target insects. Bta+XnK1 showed higher pathogenicity than those of Bta alone or Btk+XnK1 in P. xylostella. Btk+XnK1 showed higher pathogenicity than those of Btk alone or Bta+XnK1 in S. exigua. Bta+BtK+XnK1 showed high pathogenicity against both P. xylostella and S. exigua.

Mealworms, Tenebrio molitor (L.) is used as an important animal feed additive for growth promotion and health management, but potentially exposes to fungal infection. In this work, virulence of two species of entomopathogenic fungi against the insect, and the relationship between abiotic features and virulence were investigated. Secondly our consideration was also given to the effect of chemical fungicides on conidial germination for risk control. Between Beauveria bassiana (Bb) and Metarhizium roberstii (Mr) (previously M. anisopliae), Bb isolates had much higher virulence (~100% mortality in 3~4 days after the treatment), rather than Mr isolates in laboratory assays. Next, fungus-treated mealworms were kept at wheat bran at 20, 25, 30 and 35℃ with 3, 6, 9 times of water spray to the feeds for set-up of different humidity conditions. Inoculation of fungi to mealworms was conducted by fungal spray and feeding methods, which resulted in higher virulence in feeding method. In the feeding method, all temperature treatments except 35℃ showed high virulence against mealworms, but any significant relationship between virulence and humidity was not observed. In the chemical fungicide screening, fluazinam (CAS No. 79622-59-6) and mancozeb (8018-01-7) significantly inhibited the germination of Bb and Mr conidia. This work suggest that contamination of wheat bran with fungal pathogens, particularly B. bassiana may induce mycosis of mealworms, but introduction of effective fungicides possibly reduce fungal infection.

Beauveria bassiana isolates have been used in integrated pest management, but little consideration has been given to the studies on fungal gene expressions and their functions. In this work, to determine the functions of genes, B. bassiana ERL1170 was transformed by restriction enzyme-mediated integration method, where pABeG with bar gene was used as a transformation vector. Among seven hundred of transformants, morphologically different ERL1170-pABeG-#160 transformant, particularly dysfunctional in conidiogenesis. The transformant had yellow hyphal growth on fourth strength Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA/4) and produced very small amount of conidia (<1.0×105 conidia/cm2 agar) in 7 days, whereas wild type had white mycelial growth and significantly greater conidia (3.6×106 conidia/cm2 agar). Additionally under microscopic observation, hyphae of #160 seemed like indian club, compared to the straight forms of wild type hyphae. The next work is figure out possible genes contributing the conidiogenesis of B. bassiana.

Entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana can be used in integrated crop management and pharmaceutical applications. Recently some efforts have been given to the fungus to improve its biological performances, but low fungal transformation efficiency is one of the limitations. In this work, B. bassiana ERL1170 isolate was used for fungal transformation by restriction enzyme-mediated integration, where pBARKS1-Bbs-cecropinA was linearied using HindIII. The fungal transformation comprised two steps, preparation of competent blastospores and integration of the plasmid into the cells. To prepare competent blastospores, 2-d cultured blastospores were individually treated with 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.8 M lithium acetate (LiAc). Secondly in the integration step, concentration of LiAc and calcium chloride (CaCl2), and time period of heat shock were investigated as follows: LiAc, 1, 2 and 4 M; CaCl2, 50, 100 and 200 mM; and heat shock at 42℃, 20, 40 and 60 min. Consequently, combination of 0.2 M LiAc in preparing competent blastospores and 2 M LiAc and 200 mM CaCl2 in the second step showed the highest transformation efficiency. This work would be helpful in the fungal transformation of B. bassiana.

The yellow spotless ladybug (YSL), Illeis koebelei is a kind of aboriginal ladybug in Korea. YSL feed on the fungi and extraordinary prefer to powdery mildew (PM). This study was conducted to investigate the developmental characteristic and the biological control effect on the cucumber PM by the YSL from 2010 to 2012. YSL were detected on the 12 species of host plants infected with PM. and occurrence was observed from the early of July to the early of November in Gyeonggi area. The feeding amount of YSL on the cucumber PM was in order of 4th larva, adult, 3rd larva, 2nd larva and 1st larva. The optimum developmental temperature and photoperiod for YSL was 20∼25℃ and 16L:8D respectively. Three species of fungi were selected as the short term substitution feed for YSL. Control effect on cucumber PM under 2.5% of occurrence rate was linearly increased in proportion to increased numbers of 3rd larva were applied. Combination treatment of the fungal agent with YSL enhanced suppression of cucumber PM more than either agent used alone. The safety agricultural chemicals were selected harmless to the survival of larva and adult of YSL. The survival rate of pupae and adult was over 80% after storage at 10∼12℃ for 30 days. Five species of banker plant were selected for maintenance of YSL during growing season in greenhouse.

The deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC) protein mediates attractant responses to netrin during axonogenesis. In the rat trigeminal ganglia (TG), axons must extend toward and grow into the trigeminal nerve to innervate target tissues such as dental pulp. Our present study aimed to investigate the exp- ression of DCC in the TG. Four developmental timepoints were assessed in the experiments: postnatal days 0, 7 and 10 and adulthood. RT-PCR and western blotting revealed that the expression of DCC mRNA and protein does not signi- ficantly change throughout development. Immunohistoche- mistry demonstrated that DCC expression in the TG was detectable in the perikarya region of the ganglion cells du- ring development. Nerve injury at 3 and 5 days after the man- dibular nerve had been cut did not induce altered expression of DCC mRNA in the TG. Moreover, DCC-positive cell bodies also showed similar immunoreactive patterns after a nerve cut injury. The results of this study suggest that DCC constituti- vely participates in an axonogenesis attractant in ways other than expression regulation.

Fraxinus rhynchophylla (Oleaceae), a deciduous tree, is known to have properties that include anti-inflammatory, convergence, febricide, antiblenophthalmia, antidiarrhea, antileukorrhea, and so forth. In addition, it has been used for traditional herbal medicine in East Asian countries, including Korea. In this study, we investigated the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of Fraxinus rhynchophylla ethanol extract (FRE) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced murine macrophage Raw 264.7 cells with FRE pretreatment. We performed DPPH-assay, Western blot, and Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). FRE showed 85% free radical scavenging activity at concentrations of 80 µg/ml. Results of this study also showed that FRE down-regulates Cox-2 and iNOS expression in mRNA and protein level. In conclusion, crude ethanol extract of Fraxinus rhynchophylla exhibited antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, and it may potentially provide a valuable source of natural herbal agent to inhibit inflammation.

Methanol as a carbon source in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) graphene has an advantage over methane and hydrogen in that we can avoid optimizing an etching reagent condition. Since methanol itself can easily decompose into hydrocarbon and water (an etching reagent) at high temperatures [1], the pressure and the temperature of methanol are the only parameters we have to handle. In this study, synthetic conditions for highly crystalline and large area graphene have been optimized by adjusting pressure and temperature; the effect of each parameter was analyzed systematically by Raman, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, atomic force microscope, four-point-probe measurement, and UV-Vis. Defect density of graphene, represented by D/G ratio in Raman, decreased with increasing temperature and decreasing pressure; it negatively affected electrical conductivity. From our process and various analyses, methanol CVD growth for graphene has been found to be a safe, cheap, easy, and simple method to produce high quality, large area, and continuous graphene films.

Salmonellosis is a widespread bacterial zoonosis that commonly causes enterocolitis and foodborne poisoning leading to an extensive economic loss in domestic animal industry. Considerably, the emergence of multidrug resistant strains of Salmonella spp. induces further severe problems affecting public health. The present report was designated to investigate the antibacterial efficacies of three common disinfectants including an oxidizing compound disinfectant (OXC), a triple salt (TS) and a quaternary ammonium compound (QAC) against Salmonella typhimurium subjected to the preliminary changes of drug temperature. All solutions of three disinfectants were pre-incubated at different temperature (22, 37 and 63°C) for 1 h prior to exposure to bacteria. The disinfectants and bacteria were diluted with distilled water (DW), hard water (HW) or organic matter suspension (OMS) according to treatment condition. Under the DW condition, the disinfectant efficacy of the QAC at 63°C was higher than that of 22°C. Furthermore, under HW diluent the disinfectant efficacy of the TS pre-warmed at both of 37 and 63°C were increased compared to that of 22°C. Considerably, the efficacy of pre-warmed QAC at both of 37 and 63°C under the OMS diluent were higher than that of 22°C. Conclusively, prewarming at higher temperatures have positive effects on the stability of the antibacterial efficacies of TS and QAC.