Acteoside (verbascoside) is a typical phenylethanoid glycoside, extracted from various plants. It has various biological functions such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammation, and anti-hypertension. Specially, it was powerful anti-oxidants either by direct scavenging of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, or by acting as chain-breaking peroxyl radical scavengers. We examined the role of acteoside in IVM medium on the morphological progress of meiosis, developmental competence, and ROS in porcine oocytes. And we investigated effect of acteoside on the oocytes condition represented by cytoplasmic maturation by homogeneous distribution and formation of cytoplasmic organelles and regulation of apoptosis-related genes. The selected COCs were cultured in TCM-199 with various concentration of acteoside: 0 (control), 10, 30, and 50 μM. After 22 h of maturation with hormones, the oocytes were washed twice in a fresh maturation medium before being cultured in hormone-free medium for additional 22 h. The oocytes maturation rates of supplemented with acteoside were no significantly different compared with control group (71.13, 75.96, 72.95 and 73.68%, respectively). Level of ROS was significantly decreased in acteoside treated group. Furthermore, the parthenogenetic blastocyst rate was significantly improved in 10 μM acteoside treated group compared with control group (40.03 vs. 22.95%). During IVM, 10 μM acteoside treated oocytes showed that the mitochondria and lipid droplet were smaller and homogeneous distribution in cytoplasm compare with non-treated control oocytes. And reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) witarthenogenetic blstocysts revealed that acteoside increased the anti-apoptoticgenes, otherwise reibued pro-apoptotic genes. In conclusion, our results represents that addition of acteoside to the IVM medium has a beneficial effect in physiology of porcine oocytes such as viability and activation, providing a improved method for porcine oocytes in vitro.

Predation, development, and ovipostion experiments were conducted to evaluate Amblyseius swirskii (Athias-Henriot) (Acari: Phytoseiidae) as a potential biological control agent for tomato russet mite, Aculops lycopersici (Massee) (Acari: Eriophyidae) which is a periodic pest of greenhouse tomatoes. Results show that A. swirskii attacked all developmental stages of A. lycopersici, and had a type II functional response on the prey densities given. The predation rates of A. swirskii on A. lycopersici in the presense of alternative food sources such as pollen, thrips first instar, or whitefly eggs were recorded as 74%, 56%, and 76%, respectively of the predation rate on A. lycopersici alone. Amblyseius swirskii successfully completed their life-cycle on either A. lycopersici or cattail pollen. At 25oC, 70% RH, development time of female A. swirskii fed on A. lycopersici or on cattail pollen took 5.0 and 6.2 days, respectively. For the first 10 days after moulting to the adult stage, A. swirskii fed on A. lycopersici had higher daily oviposition rate (2.0 eggs per day) than on pollen (1.5 eggs per day). From this laboratory study, it can be concluded that A. swirskii has promising traits as a predator against A. lycopersici and that their populations can be stably maintained using alternative food such as cattail pollen. We suggest that the effectiveness of A. swirskii against A. lycopersici under field conditions deserves to be investigated.

We measured the non-carbon content of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in SWCNT soot using thermogravimetric analysis. The weight increased percentage by the oxidation of metal in the raw soot is well obtained by TGA graph which was confirmed with ICP-AES, XRD, and XPS. This work will be very useful for the purity precise evaluation of SWCNT with UN-vis-NIR spectroscopy.