The body and head lice (Pediculus humanus humanus and Pediculus humanus capitis, respectively) are hematophagous ectoparasites of humans and only the body louse between two is known to transmit three bacterial diseases through its feces. The proliferation profiles of Bartonella quintana, the causative agent of trench fever, inside the louse body and its excretion patterns were investigated in the two louse subspecies following oral challenge with B. quintana-infected blood meal. The initial density of B. quintana was sustained inside head lice without any noticeable proliferation for the entire period after infection. In contrast, B. quintana proliferated rapidly inside body lice and the maximum density reached at 10 days post-infection. The numbers of bacteria detected in feces from infected lice were almost the same and steadily decreased over time in both body and head lice. Nevertheless, the viability of the bacteria, as determined by fluorescence, was significantly higher in body louse feces, especially at 1 day post-infection and this tendency lasted for 11 days. These findings suggest that excretion of feces containing more viable B. quintana that is proliferated inside body lice following ingestion of infected blood meal is responsible for the higher vector competence of body lice.

Understanding how researchers are tackling globally important issues, such as climate change, is crucial to identify whether current research is comprehensive enough to make substantive predictions about general responses to climate change. We assessed the type of studies being conducted by researchers to understand the impacts of climate change on insects, published. Most published research is generated from Europe and North America and being dedicated to core data analysis, with reviews being highly produced. Temperature – only is the main climate change factor being analysed, with most researchers are assessing changes in abundance or distribution/range shifts. Of most concern is the number of studies which do not specifically identify a climate change factor (ie just arm wave), the lack of studies on Hemimetabolous insects and the need for more studies to assess specific mechanistic responses to climate change.

We report a search for fluctuations of the sky brightness toward the North Ecliptic Pole with AKARI, at 2.4, 3.2, and 4.1 μm . The stacked images with a diameter of 10 arcminutes of the AKARI-Monitor Field show a spatial structure on the scale of a few hundred arcseconds. A power spectrum analysis shows that there is a significant excess fluctuation at angular scales larger than 100 arcseconds that cannot be explained by zodiacal light, diffuse Galactic light, shot noise of faint galaxies, or clustering of low-redshift galaxies. These findings indicate that the detected fluctuation could be attributed to the first stars of the universe, i.e., Population III stars.

AKARI's all-sky survey resolves the far-infrared emission in many thousands of nearby galaxies, providing essential local benchmarks against which the evolution of high-redshift populations can be measured. This review presents some recent results in the resolved galaxy populations, covering some well-known nearby targets, as well as samples from major legacy surveys such as the Herschel Reference Survey and the JCMT Nearby Galaxies Survey. This review also discusses the prospects for higher redshifts surveys, including strong gravitational lens clusters and the AKARI NEP field.

We investigate the relation between star formation activity and PAH 3.3 μm emission. Our targets are mid-infrared-excess galaxies selected from the AKARI all-sky survey point source catalog. We performed AKARI near-infrared spectroscopy for them. As a result, we obtained 2.5 − 5 μm spectra of 79 galaxies, and selected 35 star-forming galaxies out of them. Comparing the PAH 3.3 μm luminosities with the infrared luminosities, we find a linear correlation between them. However, by adding the results from literatures for luminous infrared galaxies and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies that are more luminous than our sample, the ratio of the PAH to the infrared luminosity is found to decrease towards the luminous end.

We utilize AKARI's slitless spectroscopic capability to detect the 3.3 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) emission and measure star formation (SF) activity for various AKARI programs. First, we obtain 2∼5μm spectra of 20 flux-limited galaxies with mixed SED classes in order to calibrate the 3.3 μm PAH luminosity (LPAH 3.3) as a star formation rate (SFR) indicator. We find that LPAH3.3 correlates with LIR as well as with the 6.2 μm PAH luminosity ( LPAH 6.2). The correlations does not depend on SED classes. We find that ULIRGs deviate from the correlation between PAH luminosities and LIR, while they do not for the correlation between PAH luminosities. We suggest possible effects to cause this deviation. On the other hand, how AGN activity is linked to SB activity is one of the most intriguing questions. While it is suggested that AGN luminosity of quasars correlates with starburst (SB) luminosity, it is still unclear how AGN activity is connected to SF activity based on host galaxy properties. We are measuring SFRs for the LQSONG sample consisting of reverberation mapped AGNs and PG-QSOs. This is an extension of the ASCSG program by which we investigated the connection between SB and AGN activities for Seyferts type 1s at z ~ 0.36. While we found no strong correlation between LPAH3.3 and AGN luminosity for these Seyferts 1s, LPAH3.3 measured from the central part of galaxies correlates with AGN luminosity, implying that SB and AGN activities are directly connected in the nuclear region.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) are investigated by means of the unidentified infrared (UIR) bands. Continuous near- to mid-infrared spectra of PNe are obtained with the AKARI/IRC and the Spitzer/IRS. All 19 PNe in the present study show prominent dust emissions and we investigate the variation in the intensity ratios among the UIR bands. The ionization fraction and the size distribution of PAHs in PNe are derived using the UIR band ratios. We find that the ionization fraction of PAHs in PNe is around 0.0-0.6 and that small PAHs are scarce. The present result indicates a systematic trend of the 3.4 μm aliphatic feature to become weak as the PAH ionization fraction increases.

We present Spitzer IRS spectroscopy of CO2 ice toward 19 young stellar objects (YSOs) with luminosity lower than 1L⊙ . Pure CO2 ice forms only at elevated temperatures, T > 20 K, and thus at higher luminosities. Current internal luminosities of YSOs with L < 1L⊙ do not provide such conditions out to radii of typical envelopes. Significant amounts of pure CO2 ice would signify a higher past luminosity. We analyze 15.2 μm CO2 ice bending mode absorption lines in comparison to the laboratory data. We decompose pure CO2 ice from 12 out of 19 young low luminosity sources. The presence of the pure CO2 ice component indicates high dust temperature and hence high luminosity in the past. The sum of all the ice components (total CO2 ice amount) can be explained by a long period of low luminosity stage between episodic accretion bursts as predicted in an episodic accretion scenario. Chemical modeling shows that the episodic accretion scenario explains the observed total CO2 ice amount best.

Cryopreservation of canine spermatozoa affords potential exchange of genetic material, and thus may lead to improvement in the breeding management. However, canine spermatozoa undergo many damages such as, cold shock, ice crystal formation, oxidative stress during cryopreservation. In this study used the CASA for investigating the effect of various trehalose concentrations and thawing temperatures on the sperm viability. In addition, the efficacy of the most optimal of the tested cryopreservation protocols in this study was verified by AI as the in vivo test. Also, this study evaluates the variation of frozen- thawed canine spermatozoa during different incubation condition. The addition of trehalose 25 mM was optimal concentration and frozen-thawed semen quality was significantly higher better than control (Glucose) and other concentration groups. In effect of thawing temperature on frozen-thawed sperm movement and intact acrosome evaluations, which result enhance the sperm motility and movement value depending on increase temperature condition at 36, 54 and 72℃. Also, in the effect of different incubation condition on frozen-thawed sperm after thawing at 36℃ for 60 sec, that the results trehalose 25 mM was significantly better (p<0.05) than glucose in general as well as, the post-thawed sperm motility and intact acrosome was reduced depending on increase the incubation time. Especially, incubation at 4 to 8 hour was rapidly depreciation of movement value and the rate of intact acrosome was dropped similar tendency. Thus, incubation 17℃ was better than other incubation groups on sperm motility and acrosome integrity. For the in vivo evaluate of spermatozoa survival and is the most definitive test of sperm function, we performed artificial insemination in estrous bitch. The semen was prepared for intrauterine insemination using the 25 mM trehalose freezing extender and thawing at 36℃, and 2 bitches were inseminated with 1×106 motile spermatozoa by surgical method. The results of AI, the pregnancy rates, mean litter size and oocyte fertilization rate were 16.6% (1/6), and 50% (2/4), respectively. In conclusion, based on the results of these experiments, the effect of addition of trehalose on extender improves the movement and intact acrosome of frozen-thawed semen. In particular, trehalose 25 mM groups was higher than other different concentration group on movement value and acrosome integrity of frozen-thawed sperm. Also, through incubation condition, this study identify the optimal incubation temperature after thawing was 17℃. Furthermore, the information will be contributed to develop the canine ART including AI, IVF and canine ICSI. * This research was supported by iPET (Grants 110056-3), Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of Korea.

Sulfoxaflor, a novel sulfoximine insecticide, discovered by and proprietary to Dow AgroSciences is being developed globally. Sulfoxaflor will be used in all major crop groups, including fruits, vegetables, rice, cereals, soybean, and many other crops. Sulfoxaflor provides excellent efficacy at low use rates through contact and ingestion against important and difficult-to-control sap-feeding insect pests, including certain species of aphids, scales, plant bugs, whiteflies, planthoppers and other sap feeders. Sulfoxaflor’s mode of action is via agonism of the insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAchR), which is the same target site of neo-nicotinoid insecticides. However, relative to most neonicotinoids, sulfoxaflor is a high efficacy agonist of the nAchR with relatively low affinity for the imidacloprid binding site. Furthermore, sulfoxaflor is less susceptible to metabolism by monooxygenase enzymes and displays a broad lack of metabolism-based cross-resistance with neonicotinoids. This difference as well as its novel chemical structure led to sulfoxaflor being designated as the sole member of Group 4, Subgroup C of the IRAC Mode of Action Classification Scheme. Because of broad lack of crossresistance, sulfoxaflor will be a useful rotational partner with other insecticide chemistries, enhancing Insect Resistance Management strategies. In Korea, sulfoxaflor is being developed for use in fruit and leafy and fruiting vegetable by several companies. Results from several laboratory and field trials revealed that sulfoxaflor at use rate of 35 ppm (7% product, X2,000 dilution rate) provided excellent performance against economically important aphids in several crops compared with current sap-feeding pest control agents. Sulfoxaflor was registered in October 2011 as brandname TRANSFORM® (Sulfoxaflor 7% SC which is produced by Dongbu Hannong) will be launched for apple, pear and red-pepper in 2012.

Cell transplantation therapy using adult stem cells has recently been identified as a potential treatment for spinal cord injury (SCI). But, recovery after traumatic SCI is very limited. As dogs are physiologically much more similar to human compared with other traditional mammalian models in disease presentation and clinical responses, a number of researches demonstrated canis familiaris is a suitable model for human diseases. This study investigated the effect of transplantation of canine Mesenchymal Stem Cells (cMSC) and neural-induced cMSC (nMSC) to understand how these cells improve neurological function in canine SCI model. The differentiation of cMSC into neural precursor cells was induced in dulbecco’s modified eagle’s medium supplemented with N2-supplement, dibutyryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate, and butylated hydroxyanisole. SCI was induced between T1 and T2 by surgical hemi-section in adult dogs, and then assigned to two groups according to the applied cell types (cMSC vs nMSC). Pelleted cMSC or nMSC were transplanted directly into the injured site after SCI, respectively. Analysis of motor function after transplantation was evaluated by modified Olby score. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), histological and immunohistichemical analysis were also performed. Functional recovery in group of cMSC was increasing gradually after transplantation and was higher than nMSC. In MRI, we could not confirm any difference between the cMSC and nMSC experimental groups. Immunohistochemically, beta3-tubuline and nestin were observed in injury site of two experimental groups with the expression level close to non-injured groups. Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells could promote neuronal reconstruction and repair motor function in SCI. These showed mesenchymal stem cells could be a great candidate as a therapeutic tools in degeneration disease, and dogs could be used to explore human regenerative medicine as a promising animal model. This research was supported by iPET (Grants 110056032CG000), Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of Korea.

Bacterial contamination reduces the semen quality, semen preservation, and cause of disease spread as well. Sperm fertility is essential factor of reproductive performance in swine. Sperm fertility is affected by semen quality such as sperm motility, abnormality, morphology, and rate of bacterial contamination. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between elapsed time after semen preservation on the changes of bacteria and semen quality. Semen was diluted with BTS extender without antibiotic for 7 days and sperm parameter and fertility were measured. Sperm motility was measured by CASA and total bacteria number was counted after 22 24 hr incubation from counting agar plate in which sperm dilute to 10 106 in 0.9% saline solution and inoculate to agar. Acrosomal integrity was measured by Chlortetracycline (CTC) staining. CTC patterns were uniform fluorescence over the whole head (pattern A), characteristic of uncapacitated acrosome-intact spermatozoa; fluorescence-free band in the post-acrosomal region (pattern B), characteristic of capacitated acrosome-intact spermatozoa; and almost no fluorescence over the whole head except for a thin band in the equatorial segment (pattern C), characteristic of acrosome reacted spermatozoa. Total number of bacteria was significantly increased (p<0.0001) 3 days after preservation. Sperm motility, viability, and morphological abnormality on elapsed time after preservation were lower from 5 (77.24±6.47, p<0.001) and 7 days (77.24±6.47, p< 0.001) after preservation compared to 1 (15.71±7.18) and 3 days(18.39±7.22) after preservation, respectively. Sperm viability was significantly lower (53.25±35.03, p<0.0001) at 7 days after preservation. Mohological abnormality of sperm was lower (p<0.001) at 1 (15.71±7.18) and 3 (18.39±7.22) days compared to (5 21.84±7.91) and 7 (22.59± 9.93) days after preservation. Acrosomal integrity and capacitation rate (pattern A) were significantly lower (p<0.001) from 5 days after preservation.

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.

염분분위기에서의 부식은 사용후핵연료의 중간저장 기간 동안 304 스테인레스 강재 건식저장용기의 주 열 화기구들 중 하나다. 본 연구에서는 감소정도가 서로 다른 냉연 304 스테인레스 강 시편들에 0.5wt.%의 염화 나트륨 연무를 분사시키면서 느린 변형속도시험(SSRT)과 중성염 분사시험(NSS)을 85℃와 200℃에서 수행하 였다. 85℃에서 2000 시간 동안 시험한 NSS시편의 무게 변화는 200℃에서 시험한 시편의 무게 변화와 크게 달 랐다. NSS 시편의 85℃에서 무게 감량은 미미하였지만, 냉연 감소율이 증가함에 따라서 무게 변화는 점진적으 로 감소하였다. 85℃와 200℃에서 그리고 염분분사 환경에서 가볍게 냉연 가공된 시편의 SSRT 시험으로부터얻은 항복강도와 극한 인장응력의 값은 공기 중의 값보다 약간 낮았다. 그러나 염분 분위기에서 부식으로 인 한 20% 감소 냉연시편의 강도는 더 이상 변화하지 않았다. 예비결과는 냉연 304 스테인레스 강의 질과 성능이 건식저장용기의 제작을 위한 조건에 맞는다는 것을 증명하였다. 그러나 냉연 스테인레스 강의 장기적인 성능 을 더 잘 이해하기 위해서는 염분분위기에서 이 재질의 부식거동에 관한 더 많은 연구가 필요하다.