Even in the business-to-business markets, service quality is becoming very important factor which determines success or failure of the long-term business relationship. Our study aims to reveal how such recognized B-to-B service quality influences on realizing the relationship between the customer and the supplier. We began this research with two main objectives: (1) develop the service quality scale to facilitate assessments of B-to-B service quality and (2) investigate the structural model which deals with the relation between the service quality and business relationship performance. Considering that most previous researches about service quality were conducted in the business-to-consumer(B-to-C) area, this study conceptualizes the various quality aspects of service that are considered in B-to-B market and proposes B-SERVQUAL model which is the detailed quality measurement scale of B-to-B service. We developed a measurement scale called B-SERVQUAL for B-to-B service quality and tested research hypotheses and structural model. We found that service quality has a positive effect on relationship bonding, indicating that the superior service quality of service providers leads relationship bonding with buyers. Five dimensions considered in this study bring not only structural bond but also the social bond that refers to the emotional bonding. Relationship bonding has a positive effect on commitment. Relationship commitment appeared to be an important factor that has a positive effect on relationship performance, which demonstrates the reduction of management cost through commitment. This study reflected the economic and convenience aspects of services that haven’t been highlighted in the previous studies in the business marketing area. This study has academic implications in that it reflected the economic aspects of services, which have been dealt with conceptually by some scholars such as profitability, productivity, and cost. From the viewpoint of B2B service providers, the B-SERVQUAL proposed in this study will be helpful guide for service providers to specifically identify the customers’ needs and manage their service quality in the business market.

Voltinism could be used as an index assessing the global warming effects on insect phenology. In many cases, however, the voltinism could not be defined explicitly as a numerical scale especially when it should be calculated over the various climatic conditions. In addition, calculation of insect voltinism is much difficult when only a small portion of its population emerge as adults in the late season. In this study, a degreeday model, a simplified phenology model and a population model for the peach fruit moth, Carposina sasakii, were used to predict their voltinism. To evaluate the model performance, we assumed a continuously host providing system. Daily maximum and minimum temperatures in Suwon in 2015, and 2℃ increase in the daily maximum and minimum temperatures were used to describe current and future climate conditions, respectively. The merits and limits for three models for evaluating insect voltinism are discussed.

The cabbage whitefly Aleyrodes proletella L. (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a specialized insect that uses its mouthparts(stylets) to feed from the phloem of its host plants, which are found among the Brassicaceae and Asteraceae. Female whiteflies lay their eggs in circular patterns embedded in wax on the underside of the leaves. These were collected from the leaf of triangular lettuce, Crepidiastrum sonchifolium throughout the whole Chungnam province, 2013. We reared the cabbage whitefly on the egg-plant. The elongate-oval eggs are laid upright in a semicircle on the underside of Brassica leaves but didn’t in lab. Initially pale and translucent, the eggs become darker. Nymphs are scale-like and covered with wax; their color is white with two yellow spots on the abdomen. On the dorsal surface of the last abdomial segment is the vasiform orifice charactersitic of the group. The fourth instar is called the “pupa”. The pupa is thicker, immobile, and pale in color with red eyes. The adults are tiny, about 1.5 mm long, and moth-like. The head and thorax are dark. The abdomen is yellow and covered by a conspicuous white waxy layer. The forewings have a faint, dark bar. If disturbed, the adults fly readily. The duration of development of immature stages of Aleyrodes proletella decreased with increase in temperature, the mortality was higher below 16 ℃ and above 28 ℃.

Phosphine(PH3) is very effective fumigant and is widely used to control pests. Oxygen treatment was found to enhance phosphine toxicity and reduce fumigation time. We researched the insecticidal activities and synergistic effects of oxygen with phosphine(PH3) against on adult stage of 6 agricultural pests as Frankliniella occidentalis, F. intonsa, Pseudococcus comstocki, Planococcus citri, Myzus persicae and Tetranychus urticae. Adults F. occidentalis, F. intonsa, P. comstocki and P. citri was highly susceptible to PH3 at 2mg/L for 2h treatment. However, M. persicae and T. urticae were showed very low fumigation effects at 2mg/L for 2h treatment. These 2 pests were treated with PH3 to increase the times (16h and 20h). And we also researched the synergistic effects of PH3 under controlled atmospheres of 50% and 80% oxygen(O2). Increase of the time and atmospheric oxygen showed improving activities of the PH3 in the 2 agricultural pests. Therefore, PH3 is an effective fumigant against F. occidentalis, F. intonsa, P. comstocki and P. citri, and its synergistic effect with oxygen is effective to control M. persicae and T. urticae. PH3 with oxygen could be useful for managing the agricultural and quarantine pests.

The soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura, was introduced about a decade ago from Asia into North America where it has become a serious pest of soybeans. This invasive pest has rapidly spread throughout the midwestern United States and southern Canada since 2000. We examined 689 individuals obtained from 23 different collections in USA, Korea, China and Japan for testing eight microsatellite loci. To estimate the relative likelihood of alternative introduction scenarios of the soybean aphid, an approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) was performed for microsatellite data as implemented in DIYABC. The ABC analysis tested for three scenarios (B1, B2, and B3) hypothesizing an introduction from one of the Asian countries. In this analysis, scenario B1 obtained the highest posterior probability ranging from 0.90 to 0.91 with a 95% CI of 0.81-0.99 and 0.88-0.94, which assumes an introduction from Korea. The ABC analysis revealed that one hypothetical scenario, which assumes an introduction of the soybean aphid into USA from Korea, was very robustly suggested than the other two scenarios (from China or Japan).

The banded greenhouse thrips, Hercinothrips femoralis (Reuter, 1891) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae: Panchaetothripinae), has been reported as a pest on many kinds of crops such as banana, sugar beet, eggplant, green pepper, and greenhouse ornamentals. Originally from the African continent, the species has expanded its distribution worldwide, including North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. In our country it was recorded for the first time by Woo in 1973, with six females from Jeju island, but after that there was no subsequent report about occurrence and damage until present. Recently, it was rediscovered in private homes, severely damaging to ornamental plants, angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia suaveolens) and ivy (Hedera helix) in Gyeonggi-do and Jeollabuk-do. For identification and future management of this exotic pest, representative morphological characteristics and already known biological informations are provided.

Tribe Saissetiini Hodgson, 1994 are reviewed as 8 species of 3 genera from Korea, including Parthenolecanium fletcheri (Cockerell, 1893) and Saissetia miranda (Cockerell & Parrott, 1899) new to the Korean peninsula. Diagnosis and descriptions for Korean species are redescribed with illustrations, photographs and key to species.

Pear psyllids are of major economic concern in Korea. In the literature five nominal species, including two West Palaearctic taxa, are reported from the Peninsula. The Korean pear psyllids, member of the large genus Cacopsylla, are reviewed here to comprise four species. Previous Korean records of C. pyrisuga (Foerster) are misidentification of C. burckhardti Luo et al. whereas those of C. pyricola (Foerster) concern C. maculatili Li and probably C. jukyungi (Kwon) stat. rev., comb. nov. (from Psylla). The latter, that is commonly found in pear orchards, occurs also in Japan where it was misidentified as C. chinensis. The differences between C. jukyungi and C. cinereosignata syn. nov. reflect seasonal dimorphism. For this reason, we synonymise the two. C. maculatili and C. qiuzili Li are shown to represent the winter and the summer form of the same species and are, therefore, synonymised as C. maculatili = C. qiuzili syn. nov. C. jukyungi and C. sandolbaea (Park & Lee) are redescribed, a key to the adult of the four species and short biological notes are provided.

The soft scales (Hemiptera: Coccidae) are plant-sucking insects, some of which are considered as serious agricultural pests. Here, we performed phylogenetic analysis of Coccidae, based on molecular fragments 1813bp containing mitochondrial DNA (COI), nuclear ribosomal RNA genes (18S and 28S), and elongation factor 1α (EF1-α). Data sets of 64 taxa were analyzed using maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI). Our molecular analyses represent: 1) Monophyletic clade of Ceroplastinae is nested within the major clade of Coccinae; 2) Four tribes of Coccinae are paraphyletic, especially Megapulvinaria and Paralecanium not clustered within the major clade of Coccinae; 3) Didesmococcus is separated from the clade of Eulecaniinae; 4) Filippiinae and Cardiococcinae are paraphyletic with respect to some of Coccinae and Eulecaniinae.

Generally, in aphid groups, taxonomically deficient characters and high level of morphological plasticity induced by environmental factors make difficulties for species identification. To solve these problems, DNA barcoding has been widely used for rapid and reliable species identification in aphids. The subfamily Calaphidinae is the second largest group in the family Aphididae with about 400 species belong to 59 genera. But so far, no trial of DNA barcoding has been conducted for the subfamily Calaphidinae. In this study, a total of 446 Cytochrome oxidase I (COI) sequences of 76 morphospecies collected in Korea and other countries were analyzed to detect cryptic diversity. In addition, 551 sequences of 74 species from the Genbank and BOLD system were compared with our new dataset. The final dataset consisted of 998 sequences of 115 species. As a results, we propose 12 cryptic species with discussion on morphological and ecological comparisons. Our results suggest that DNA barcoding is effective for precise species identification in this group and contributes to reveal hidden diversity.

Microfluidics based on nanobio sensors technologies can provide convenient and accurate diagnosis tools. In this talk, we present recent developments of nanobio sensors & diagnosis chip using microfluidics, with special emphasis on disposable plastic devices format. In detail, we overview of the common methods used in the fabrication of polymer microfluidic systems, including replica and injection mold-ing. Also we explain the different methods by which on-chip operations—such as the pumping and valving of fluid flow, the mixing of different reagents, and the separation and detection of different biochemical species implemented in a microfluidic format. Finally, a few select biotechnological applications of microfluidics are presented to illustrate both the utility of this technology and its potential applications with insect models in the near future.

Brachymystax lenok tsinlingensis (family Salmonidae), cold freshwater fish, is endemic to Asia. This species is currently distributed throughout Russia, Mongolia, China and the Korean Peninsula. B. lenok tsinlingensis in South Korea was severely affected by anthropogenic activities such as habitat destruction, agricultural run-off and water pollution, and hence this fish has recently been dramatically decreased in its population sizes and become now critically endangered. To recover the number of individuals of B. lenok tsinlingensis, stocking or translocation programs have been conducted continuously by local governments since 1970s. However, these programs made little effort to clarify populations that may have originated from stocked, translocated or introduced fish. An understanding of genetic characteristics of endangered populations is critical to develop effective conservation and restoration plans especially because genetic diversity ensues their future fate. Therefore, we assessed the “conservation status” of this species by estimating the level of genetic diversity and genetic structure among ten geographic populations including restored populations via reinforcement and supplementation. Also, we aimed to trace the genetic origins of the newly translocated population (Chiak) through a restoration practice program. Moreover, we inferred the phylogenetic relationships among Korean lenok populations as well as across the Northeast Asia. Two hundred eighteen individuals of B. lenok tsinlingensis were sampled from ten localities (Yanggu, Injae, Seorak, Bangtae and Hongcheon: North Han River basin; Pyeongchang, Chiak and Jeongseon: South Han River basin; Taebaek and Bonghwa: Nakdong River basin in South Korea). Based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region and eight nuclear microsatellite loci, we found extremely low levels of within-population genetic diversity, which suggests small effective population sizes (Ne) within populations. For mtDNA control region, each population housed one, or at most, two haplotypes that are restricted to the respective localities, meaning that these ‘genetically unique’ lineages will be lost permanently if the local populations undergo extinction. The overall values of haplotype diversity (h) and nucleotide diversity (π) for the entire Korean population were 0.703 ± 0.024 and 0.021 ± 0.010, respectively. In the case of microsatellites, average number of alleles across the eight loci for the entire population was 9.1 and allelic richness (AR) per population ranged from 2.375 to 4.144 (mean = 3.104). The values of observed heterozygosity (HO) and expected heterozygosity (HE) were similar to each other [HO: 0.400 ~ 0.590 (mean = 0.518); HE: 0.407 ~ 0.608 (mean = 0.504)]. The inbreeding coefficient (FIS) values were generally low, ranging from 0.048 to 0.279. Consequently, the majority of the populations (except Yanggu and Pyeongchang) were not significantly deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), suggesting random mating at these loci tested. In addition, we found that Korean lenok populations were significantly genetically isolated from each other, with private mtDNA haplotypes and microsatellite alleles, indicating limited gene flow among populations, strong effects of genetic drift due to small Ne, or a combination of both. The Mantel test of microsatellites revealed a significant correlation (r = 0.414, P = 0.04) between genetic and geographic distances for pairwise comparisons among the ten populations, while that of mtDNA showed a lack of correlation. Given the shared identical mtDNA haplotype and similar microsatellite allelic distributions between Chiak and Hongcheon populations, we suggest that the restored (introduced) Chiak population would be inferred to be genetically originated from Hongcheon population. Phylogenetic relationships among Northeast Asian populations showed that South Korean lineages have more recently diverged from China (Yellow River), than between North Korea and Russia. Although the phylogenetic relationship would be expected to be associated with geography, South-North Korea and China populations with a similar latitude was more phylogenetically closely related. These findings may suggest a possible scenario for the historical movements of B. lenok tsinlingensis in Northeast Asia during Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). It would be supported by the line of evidence that most lenok populations migrated to southward from Northern Asia such as Russia and Mongolia during LGM because the Korean Peninsula was landlocked as inland epoch and functioned as a southern shelter with Yellow River. For this reason, the Korean Peninsula is suggested to be an important geographical region for better understanding phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary histories of B. lenok tsinlingensis across the Northeast Asia. Despite large efforts made to develop several restoration programs in South Korea for B. lenok tsinlingensis, it is still unknown whether these past restoration efforts were successful or fruitless, mainly because of little attention paid to post-restoration monitoring research. Hence, there was a lack of their published official records. In the future, conservation and restoration projects of the Korean lenok populations should consider the genetic data for a better understanding of their ecological and evolutionary trajectories. And finally, we hope that our findings here can help inform on the future effective conservation and restoration plans for B. lenok tsinlingensis populatio ns in South Korea.

Dynamical analysis of compact groups provides important tests of models of compact group formation and evolution. By compiling 2066 redshifts from FLWO/FAST, from the literature, and from SDSS DR12 in the fields of compact groups in McConnachie et al. (2009), we construct the largest sample of compact groups with complete spectroscopic redshifts in the redshift range 0.01 < z < 0.22. This large redshift sample shows that the interloper fraction in the McConnachie et al. (2009) compact group candidates is  42%. A secure sample of 332 compact groups includes 192 groups with four or more member galaxies and 140 groups with three members. The fraction of early-type galaxies in these compact groups is 62%, higher than for the original Hickson compact groups. The velocity dispersions of early- and late-type galaxies in compact groups change little with groupcentric radius; the radii sampled are less than 100 h−1 kpc, smaller than the radii typically sampled by members of massive clusters of galaxies. The physical properties of our sample compact groups include size, number density, velocity dispersion, and local environment; these properties slightly differ from those derived for the original Hickson compact groups and for the DPOSS II compact groups. Differences result from subtle differences in the way the group candidates were originally selected. The abundance of the compact groups changes little with redshift over the range covered by this sample. The approximate constancy of the abundance for this sample is a potential constraint on the evolution of compact groups on a few Gigayear timescale.

The aim of the present study was to investigate sex- and age-associated clinico-metabolic characteristics of urinary stone patients. A retrospective review was performed on data from 2,009 consecutive patients presenting with their first urinary stone episode between 2005 and 2013. Of the 2,009 patients, 1,426 (71.0%) satisfied the inclusion criteria and were enrolled in the study. Patients were grouped by age (<60, ≥60 years old) and sex. The medical history and 24 hr urinary chemistry results of each patient were obtained. The mean age of the 165 (11.6%) patients aged 60 or over was 65.5 ± 4.2 years. Body mass index was greater in elderly females than in younger females (p=0.031). After stratification by sex and age, lower urinary excretion of calcium and uric acid was a protective factor for both sexes among the elderly (p<0.05, each, respectively). Low urine pH was a common risk factor for both sexes among the elderly (p=0.013 in males, p=0.047 in females, respectively), whereas lower citrate excretion was a risk factor for only the elderly female group (p=0.004). With regard to urinary metabolic abnormalities, elderly females showed higher incidence of hypocitraturia compared to younger females (p=0.049). In conclusion, this study demonstrated the sex- and age-associated clinico-metabolic characteristics of urinary stone patients. Thus, it is important to tailor metabolic evaluation and medical prevention therapies for patient according to sex and gender characteristics.

그물총채벌레아과의 중국 남부에서만 알려졌던 고들빼기총채벌레(신칭, Caliothrips tongi Mound et al.)를 한국에서 처음 보고한다. 이 종은 우리나라 전국에 걸쳐 널리 분포하고 있으며, 아시아 원산인 왕고들빼기(Lactuca indica, 국화과)가 주요 기주이고 잎에 심각한 피해를 준다.