The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of freeze dried placenta supplementation on reproductive performance, colostrum and plasma biochemical composition in pregnant sows. Eleven Landrace × Large white sows were fed with corn-soybean meal diets supplemented with or without 1% freeze dried placenta powder from 10 days before their expected farrowing dates until 10 days postpartum. The colostrum protein content was significantly higher(P=0.043) in the treatment group than in the control group. Compared to the control group, the immunoglobulin G(IgG) concentration in the colostrum was significantly higher(P=0.004) in the treatment. In day 25 piglets plasma, the IgG concentration was higher(P=0.184) in the treatment than the control. The mortality rate was lower(P=0.102), and the piglet weight gain was higher(P=0.35) in the treated group. Overall, the treatment group showed greater levels of protein and IgG concentration in the colostrum, when compared to control group. Therefore, the freeze dried placenta supplementation on pregnant sows can enhance its colostrum composition, hence decrease the mortality and increase the growth rate of piglets.

The relationship of in vitro starch digestibility and gel strength was investigated at various concentrations (10-30%) of rice cultivars with different amylose contents (27.9, 17.9, and 5.2%). As the rice flour concentration increased, predicted glycemic index decreased, but gel strength increased regardless of amylose contents. Gel strength correlated strongly with amylose content, whereas in vitro starch digestibility was more highly affected by rice flour concentration than by amylose contents. Moreover, the impact of degree of gelatinization on in vitro starch digestibility of high amylose rice was also examined in terms of structural features and rheological properties. The digestion rate of fully gelatinized flour was 1.7 times higher than that of native flour, while the disrupted structure with a different gelatinization degree during starch digestion was visually demonstrated through the X-ray diffraction and molecular distribution analysis. The rice flour changed from an A-type to a V-type pattern and showed difference in crystalline melting. The low molecular weight distribution increased with increasing degree of gelatinization during starch digestion. The apparent viscosity also increased with degree of gelatinization. These results demonstrated that the starch digestibility of rice was more affected by concentration than by amylose content, as well as by the degree of gelatinization due to structural difference.

Entomopathogenic fungi have been used as important part of integrated pest management program to control aphid. In particular, Beauveria bassiana was distributed throughout the world including temperate and tropical area, various habitats from alpine soil, desert soil to running water and both insect and plant. Especially the fungus has also been isolated from the surface and the interior of plants and act as natural control agent. Viability of fungi on the plant surface may be influenced by temperature, humidity, sunlight and plant type as well as fungal isolate. Persistence of treated fungal control agent on phylloplane and control efficacy may differ from environmental conditions and isolates. In this study, we investigated the persistence of an B. bassiana which is developing as prototype wettable powder to control cotton aphid, and the residual efficacy of the prototype on cucumber under three different greenhouse conditions.

Cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Gloever is one of the major pests on a wide range of economically important crops in the world. The sustained use of chemical insecticides to control the aphid has led to the emergence of resistant strains to numerous used insecticides. As an alternative strategy entomopathogenic fungi have been used as part of integrated pest management program to control aphid, especially insecticide-resistance population. In particular, Beauveria bassiana-based commercial bio-insecticide has been used to reduce the pest population under greenhouse conditions in various countries. In this study, we investigated the control efficacy of a prototype of commercial mycopesticide using an B. bassiana (wettable powder) against cotton aphid on potted cucumber plant in greenhouse conditions.

Various insect pests and plant disease can outbreak in a field. For the effective control of pests and plant diseases during crop cultivation, farmers simultaneously or sequentially spray various eco-friendly agricultural materials (EFAM), chemical pesticides and microbial control agents on the same fields. It was reported that many agrochemicals are harmful to entomopathogenic fungi, especially some fungicides with broad spectrum activity that are routinely applied for the control of plant diseases. In addition, some pesticides may antagonize the potential insecticidal activity and efficiency of entomopathogenic fungi. Therefore, sometimes the utilization of fungal entomopathogen in forestry and agricultural production is limited because of the undesirable interference from some fungicides and pesticides. There is little research that examines the compatibility of these EFAMs with entomopathogenic fungi and the influence of EFAMs on the control efficacy of mycopesticides. We conducted a study of influence of pretreated eco-friendly agricultural materials on control efficacy of Isaria javanica isolate against sweet potato whitefly.

Entomopathogenic fungi are natural enemies of insect pests and contribute to the natural regulation of their host populations. These fungal group are often used as active ingredients for microbial insect pest control. In addition, the potential antimicrobial effect by entomopathogenic fungi including Beauveria bassiana, Lecanicillium spp., and Isaria fumosorosea have recently been reported against fungal plant pathogens. Dual microbial control effects with entomopathogenic fungi against both aphids and cucumber powdery mildew had reported in Canada. In our previous studies we conducted bioassay with entomopathogenic fungi to develop dual microbial control agent which can control both aphid and fungal plant disease. We selected an Beauveria bassiana isolate which has high dual control effects against both cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii and sclerotinia rot, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. In this study, we have tested the dual control efficacy of the B. bassiana isolate against cotton aphid and sclerotinia rot on whole potted cucumber plants. We found that the B. bassiana isolate protected the plant from cotton aphid and sclerotinia rot under laboratory condition.

경기도 8개 지역에서 2010년부터 2012년 동안 식균성인 노랑무당벌레의 발생기주를 조사한 결과, 흰가루병에 감염된 12종의 식물에서 관찰 이 되었다. 특히 가장 밀도가 높았던 배과원에서 노랑무당벌레는 7월 상순부터 11월 상순까지 발견되었다. 식균성인 노랑무당벌레의 장내에서는 흰가루병 균사나 포자 외에 다른 먹이의 흔적이 발견되지 않았고, 알과 번데기를 제외한 전 발육단계에서 균을 섭식하는 특성을 볼 때 절대적 식균성 곤충으로 생각된다. 25℃에서 오이 흰가루병균을 섭식한 노랑무당벌레의 발육기간은 알, 유충, 번데기, 성충이 각각 3.9, 10.4, 4.1, 37.7일 이었고, 발육단계별 오이 흰가루병 섭식량은 45.6, 144.4, 372.2, 628.1, 473.7 mm 2로 4령, 성충, 3령, 2령, 1령 순으로 많았다. 본 연구를 통해 노랑무당벌 레의 오이 흰가루병에 대한 섭식능력을 바탕으로 향후 유용 토착천적으로써 대량사육기술, 저독성 약제 선발 등 작물 흰가루병 종합방제기술(IPM) 에 대한 연구가 필요하리라 사료된다.

The present research investigated copper and cadmium stress-induced differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using annealing control primers (ACP) with the differential display reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction technique in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L. cv. Vernal) leaves. Alfalfa leaves were subjected to 250 μM of copper and cadmium treatment for a period of 6 h. A total of 120 ACPs was used. During copper and cadmium treatment, 6 DEGs were found to be up or down regulated. During copper stress treatment, 1 DEG was up-regulated, and 3 novel genes were discovered. Similarly, during cadmium stress treatment, 1 DEG was up-regulated and 5 novel genes were identified. Among all 6 DEGs, DEG-4 was identified as the gene for trans-2,3-enoyl-CoA reductase, DEG-5 was identified as the gene for senescence-associated protein DIN1 and DEG-6 was identified for caffeic acid O-methyltransferase. All the up-regulated genes may play a role in copper and cadmium stress tolerance in alfalfa.

Extracts from Aloe vera leaves, Aloe arborescens leaves, Aloe vera callus, Portulaca oleracea and cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) bean husk (CBH) were prepared using acetone, chloroform, ethanol, hexane, and water. Solvent extracts of Aloe vera leaf had very high antioxidant activities showing IC50 values in the ranges of 0.02-0.17 mg/ mL, and had the highest total phenolic and flavonoid content among the tested samples. We hypothesized that Aloe vera leaf and CBH extracts might possess considerable in vitro anti-glycation activities. Indeed, these extracts strongly inhibited the formation of advanced glycation end-products from RNase in the presence of ribose. The chloroform extract of Aloe vera leaf showed the strongest inhibition of AGE formation (99.9%), followed by the 95% acetone extract (92.8%) at a concentration of 1 mg/mL, exhibiting higher anti-glycation activities than those of AG and rutin (73.4% and 96.1% at 1 mg/mL, respectively). The anti-glycation activity of all extracts was correlated positively with their total contents of phenolics and flavonoids. We conclude that Aloe vera leaf extracts and their constituents may be used as anti-glycation agents.

The explosion of new technologies is transforming the retail industry. In particular, a range of smart technologies (e.g., tablets, smartphones, WiFi, augmented reality, apps, video, virtual catalogs, smart tags) are providing fashion retailers with innovative ways to capitalize on strategic opportunities (Anderson & Exkstein, 2013). Due to the growth of smart in-store technology (SIST) applications in the retailing environment, it is critical for academic researchers to understand consumer responses to these technologies. The technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis et al., 1989; Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1992) is one framework for investigating consumer adoption of SIST. However, research has been equivocal concerning the belief-attitude-intention linkage, especially the mediating role of attitude in TAM. As an attempt to address this issue, this study examines how well TAM explains consumer adoption of SIST. Online survey data were collected from three different SIST settings (i.e., Virtual Mirror vs. Socially Interactive Dressing Room vs. RFID Music Tag). A total of 657 individuals completed the questionnaires resulting in a 27.56% response rate. Excluding participants with incomplete data, responses from 625 individuals (203 for Virtual Mirror; 209 for Socially Interactive Dressing Room; 213 for RFID Music Tag) were included for data analysis. A series of hierarchical multiple regressions was used to analyze the data. Our major findings include: (a) perceived ease of use was found to be a suppressor variable and thus dropped from the model; (b) perceived usefulness was significant in Virtual Mirror (β = .33, p < .01), Socially Interactive Dressing Room (β = .26, p < .01) and RFID Music Tag (β = .18, p < .01); (c) perceived enjoyment was found to be the best predictor of adoption intention of: Virtual Mirror (β = .46, p < .001); Socially Interactive Dressing Room (β = .61, p < .001); and RFID Music Tag (β = .67, p < .001); (d) attitude has a small effect above and beyond the effects of perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment; and (e) attitude partially mediated the belief-intention linkage in Virtual Mirror. In Socially Interactive Dressing Room and RFID Music Tag, attitude fully mediated the usefulness-intention linkage while it partially mediated the enjoyment-intention relationship. Our findings have implications for improving consumer adoption of SIST. Our data indicate that, although perceived usefulness is clearly important, perceived enjoyment is even more important and should not be overlooked in SIST execution and management. Our results imply that consumers may be willing to tolerate a SIST that does not do a useful task in order to enjoy the SIST experience itself. This finding also suggests that no amount of usefulness will be able to compensate for a SIST that does not provide enjoyment.

Despite many researches related with in-vitro culture of porcine spematogonial stem cells (SSCs), adherent culture system widely used has shown a limitation in the maintenance of porcine SSC self-renewal. Therefore, in order to overcome this obstacle, suspension culture, which is known to have numerous advantage over adherent culture, was applied to the culture of porcine SSCs. Porcine SSCs retrieved from neonatal testes were suspension-cultured for 5 days or 20 days, and characteristics of suspension-cultured porcine SSCs including proliferation, alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity, and self-renewal-specific gene expression were investigated and compared with those of adherent-cul-tured porcine SSCs. As the results, the suspension-cultured porcine SSCs showed entirely non-proliferative and significantly higher rate of AP-positive cells and expression of self-renewal-specific genes than the adherent-cultured porcine SSCs. In addition, long-term culture of porcine SSCs in suspension condition induced significant decrease in the yield of AP staining-positive cells on post-day 10 of culture. These results showed that suspension culture was inappropriate to culture porcine SSCs, because the culture of porcine SSCs in suspension condition didn’t stimulate proliferation and maintain AP activity of porcine SSCs, regardless of culture periods.

The Riptortus (stinkbug) has a specialized symbiotic organ, M4 midgut, to harboring symbiont Burkholderia. M4 midgut is located in abdomen and surrounded with insect hemolymph. Recently our group demonstrated that symbiotic Burkholderia showed different physiology after adapting in M4 gut compare with in vitro cultured Burkholderia. And population of symbiotic Burkholderia in the M4 midgut is regulated by special organ. However, the molecular mechanism to prevent spreading and migrating symbiont bacteria to other host tissues from symbiotic organ is not clear. Therefore, we assumed that symbiont Burkholderia are susceptible to host humoral immunity after established infection in M4 midgut to prevent spreading and migrating into the other host tissues through Riptortus hemolymph. To prove this assuming, we tested the susceptibility and survival rate of symbiont Burkholderia in hemolymph of Riptortus in vitro and in vivo. We also examined the susceptibility of symbiont Burkholderia using purified antimicrobial peptides (AMP), pyrrhocoricin-like, thanatin-like and defensin-like AMPs. Finally, we tested inducing ability for AMPs by systemic infection of symbiotic Burkholderia. Gene expression of purified AMPs was not different after systemic infection of both symbiont and in vitro cultured Burkholderia. Surprisingly, in vitro cultured Burkholderia resisted on bacteria injected hemolymph and purified AMPs but symbiont Burkholderia were highly susceptible in bacteria injected hemolymph and purified AMP. These results suggest that symbiont Burkholderia can't survive in the hemolymph after escaping symbiotic organ. Moreover, humoral immunity of host Riptortus is important to prevent spreading and migrating symbiont Burkholderia into the other host tissue or organ from symbiotic organ.

Urbanization is one of the leading causes of habitat loss, habitat degradation, and fragmentation. Urban development negatively affects biodiversity. This study aimed to clarify the change of butterfly communities on effect of urbanization in urban green areas. Butterfly survey was conducted using the line transect methods from April to October in 2012. A total of 59 species and 1,465 individuals of butterflies were observed in four urban green areas: Namsan Park (NS), Ewha Womans University (EW), Bukseoul Dream Forest (BD), and Hongneung Forest (HF), and natural forest: Gwangneung Forest (GF). The category of land use around study site was determined based on GIS data. Species richness and abundance of niche breadth and habitat type in urban green areas differed significantly from those in GF. Estimated species richness and species diversity (H’) in four urban green areas were significantly lower than those in GF. Species richness and abundance of forest interior species and specialist were positively correlated with paddy, field, and forest, whereas those of forest interior species and specialist were negatively correlated with urban area and road. Butterfly communities in four urban green area differed from that in GF. The result suggests that the decrease of paddy, field, and forest associated with increase of urban area and road negatively influences species composition and changes butterfly communities.

To profile the proteome in porcine plasma, blood samples were collected from adult male barrows and those plasma were retrieved. For the depletion or pre-fractionation of high-abundance proteins, plasma samples were treated with commercial kits. Then, protein profiling was initiated using one and two-dimensional electrophoresis. Proteins were spotted and then identified by MALDI-TOF-TOF and LC-MS-MS. In the results, more than forty six proteins were identified and the reference map was constructed. The pre-treatment for the removal of high-abundance proteins caused the changes in 2-DE images and some of the proteins were newly uncovered after the most of high abundant proteins were removed. However, it is expected for further steps necessary to identify more low-abundance proteins that may contain potential bio-markers.

Here, we present an approach of blood plasma proteome profiling and their comparisons between the young and the adult pigs as prerequisite for the identification of bio-markers related to the health conditions, growth performance and meat quality. To profile the proteome in porcine plasma, blood samples were collected from 19 young piglets and 20 adult male barrows and the plasma was retrieved. Then, protein profiling was initiated using one and two-di-mensional electrophoresis. Proteins were spotted and then identified by MALDI-TOF-TOF and LC-MS-MS. In the re-sults, more than thirty-six and twenty eight protein spots were selected in young piglets and adult pigs, respectively and twenty three proteins were identified. The proteome profile images were compared between those ones using Image Master Version 7.0. The image of expressed proteome showed that most of proteins from plasma of young pig-let separated clearly and concentrated in 2DE display compared to ones from adult. Image analysis in detail was car-ried out to look for the specific proteins related to age progression. It demonstrated that the characteristics of proteome expression could be distinct to their age stages. Further investigations needed to proceed to understand the age de-pendent change of protein conformation and biological meaning of those differences in proteome expression between young and mature adult pigs.