In Korea, twelve species in genus Myrmica have been described. Some of them are morphologically similar and this makes their identification difficult. For this reason, we collected several Myrmica species in question and inferred their phylogenetic relationship using the 418bp partial COI (cytochrome C oxidase 1) region from a total of 33 individuals. We found that the CO1 haplotypes are effectively grouped into three clusters that match well to their external morphological characters. Although this three species could be distinguished by the only small part of the COI region, the two individual sample of the M. kotokuii and one sample of the M. carinata are included in the M. kurokii group. The results indicate that the morphological identification could be obscure in the three species and it requires a close examination for this phenomenon.

We previously reported Pear Pest Forecasting Management System (PPFMS) for the Improvement of pass ratio of Korean exporting pears. It is consisted of regular field forecasting by pear farmers, meteorological data obtained by automatic weather station (AWS), an internet web page (http://pearpest.jnu.ac.kr/) as information collecting and providing ground, and information providing service. Currently, we are expanding this system to the area, Cheonan and Ansung, where pear orchards are organized into exportation-specific group. Further, the information obtained from field forecasting and AWS were up-loaded to under-constructing upgraded webpage (http://www.kpear.kr), with several pest/disease-related information. We hope this pest forecasting management system increases the pass ratio of Korean exporting pears throughout establishment of farmer-oriented forecasting, inspiring farmers’ effort for the prevention and forecasting of diseases and pests occurring at pear orchards.

The influence of the culture media on the growth and catechins and caffeine production was investigated in adventitious root cultures of tea tree. The growth rate of adventitious roots was higher than that of solid medium. Growth rate of adventitious roots was noted to be optimal in N6 liquid medium. Yields of (-)-epicatechin gallate (ECG) and caffeine were the highest when adventitious root cultures were maintained in Nitsch and B5 liquid medium, respectively. The production of (-)-epicatechin (EC) and (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) from adventitious roots was maximal when cultured in 1/2MS liquid medium. The adventitious root extracts of tea tree produced on catechins as EC (20.77 mg/g) and EGCG (1.84 mg/g) in 1/2MS medium; EGC (24.39 mg/g) and caffeine (12.97 mg/g) in B5 medium and (-)-epigallocatechin (ECG) (2.16 mg/g) in Nitsch liquid medium.

The mushrooms have been used as traditional medicines and food resources in many countries. The objective of this study was to determine antioxidant compounds and to evoluate tyrosinase inhibitory activity of extracts from Hypsizigus marmoreus. The pileus and stipe of Hypsizigus marmoreus were extracted with methanol and water, separately. The methanol extract of Hypsizigus marmoreus were fractioned by hexane, chloroform, ethylacetate and buthanol. The concentrations of total polyphenolics and flavonoids in methanol extracts were investigated by colorimetric methods. The concentrations of total polyphenolics and flavonoids in methanol extract of the pileus was higher than methanol extract of the stipe. The DPPH redical scavenging activity of the pileus extract was also higher than stipe extract in methanol extract. The IC50 of DPPH redical scavenging activity of the pileus and stipe in methanol extract were 18 mg/ml and 1 10 mg/ml, respectively. The IC50 of tyrosinase inhibitory activity of the pileus and stipe in methanol extract were 500 mg/ml and 1,000 mg/ml in methanol extract. These results suggest that Hypsizigus marmoreus can be potentially used as a source of natural antioxidant agent in the cosmetic industry as well as the food, pharmaceutical and medicinal industry.

Laboratory equipment will continue to be developed and created as long as experiments continue. Up until now, the designs have been focused on the functional role; successfully process the study purpose. However, nowadays, the requirements of providing emotional satisfaction of the design, has increased. Even so, the users are normally limited by specific groups and investments on these designs have been neglected due to small annual production by the small market. Through this study, we have conducted an emotional evaluation on Temperature and Humidity Chamber's (TH Chamber) exterior shape. First of all, we extracted emotional words and placed them in categories that represent these emotions and conducted an emotional evaluation on four typical TH chamber models. They were selected based on its door lock type and control box type. The result showed that the 'fixed type' of control box and the 'handle type' of door lock were most favorable by the users, satisfying the five representative emotions; 'Attractiveness', 'Classiness', 'Comfortableness', 'Pleasant' and 'Satisfaction in Usability'. Particularly, all 4 emotional words in the 'Satisfaction in Usability' category recorded over 3.65. This indicates that Satisfaction in Usability is relatively an important category when expressing laboratory equipment. The result of this research is expected to be used as a basic data to find a way of right approach in laboratory equipment design.

To identify subspecies and stocks of minke whale meats purchased from Korean markets during 2005-2007, we first obtained their complete sequences of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b and control region sequences, and compared these sequences to the corresponding sequences of the common minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), obtained from GenBank. From analyses with partial cytochrome b sequences (383 bp) and non-coding, partial control region sequences (463 bp), Korean mink whale meats are identified as products from the North Pacific minke whale (B. a. scammoni). In addition, the sequences of the partial control region from these meats showed G at site no. 298 and G or A at site no. 463, and the meats appeared to originate from the J stock within this subspecies. Thus, because the J stock has been protected since 1986, implementation of strict regulation measures to reduce their accidental fisheries by catch seems urgent. In addition, B. a. scammoni is distinct from B. a. acutorostrata, with an average Jukes-Cantor distance of 2.21% in the complete control region sequence analysis (935 bp) and 1.31% in the complete cytochrome b gene sequence analysis; the current results support the current subspecies classification, although further sequencing analyses with nuclear genes are necessary.

Many Wild Mushrooms were collected at Mt. Eokbul areas for 2 days in July 2010. and 1 day in August 2010. Identification in the collecting field by taking photos, recording the feature of the surroundings and ecological quality and then observing internal organs through an optical microscope. They were identified and examined with references. According to the result, Species diversities are 2 division, 2 classes, 1 subclass, 5 orders, 17 familys, 30 genera and 37 species. Dominant famillies are Tricholomataceae and Poryporaceae. Dominant species are Trichaptum abietum. Resources of Wild Mushrooms were 5 species in edibility, 6 species in clulture, 8 species in toxine, 6 species in medicne, 4 species in anticancer, 12 species in ectomycorrizahe and 16 species in rotten wood. Therefore the study is aimed at providing fundamental materials required for preserving Mt. Eokbul.

The black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) is an invasive species that is thought to be endemic in Korea. The insect has been paid much attention thanks to its ability to decompose organic wastes. We collected the insect nation-wide in 2006 and 2010 to investigate its genetic structure based on the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 1 (mt CO1) haplotype. The results show that during the time period the insect seems to lose some rare haplotypes. We conclude that the insect may have experienced genetic bottleneck while its settlement in Korea. In our presentation, we show its updated haplotype network and genetic differentiation and propose potential explanations.

Epoxy resin based encapsulants are widely used in semiconductor packaging applications. Epoxy resin based encapsulants are often subject to crack or delamination during the reliability test due to the thermal stress caused by high modulus nature of epoxy resins. Epoxy functional siloxanes are often added into epoxy resin to reduce the modulus so that the thermal stress can be reduced. Epoxy functional siloxanes, additives for reduced modulus, were synthesized and added into the curable epoxy resins. The modulus and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) were also measured to investigate the thermal stress and to see whether the epoxy functional siloxane adversely affects the CTE or not. As a result, around 26% to 72% of thermal stress reduction was observed with no adverse effect on CTE.

Bicuculline is one of the most commonly used GABAд eceptor antagonists in electrophysiological research. Because of its poor water solubility, bicuculline quaternary ammonium salts such as bicuculline methiodide (BMI) and bicuculline methbromide are preferred. However, a number of studies have shown that BMI has non-GABAд eceptor-mediated effects. The substantia gelatinosa (SG) of the trigeminal subnucleus caudalis (Vc) is implicated in the processing of nociceptive signaling. In this study, we investigated whether BMI has non-GABA receptor-mediated activity in Vc SG neurons using a whole cell patch clamp technique. SG neurons were depolarized by application of BMI (20M) using a high Cℓ⁻ipette solution. GABA ( 30-100μM) also induced membrane depolarization of SG neuron. Although BMI is known to be a GABAд receptor antagonist, GABA-induced membrane depolarization was enhanced by co-application with BMI. However, free base bicuculline (fBIC) and picrotoxin (PTX), a GABAд and GABAс receptor antagonist, blocked the GABA-induced response. Furthermore, BMI-induced membrane depolarization persisted in the presence of PTX or an antagonist cocktail consisting of tetrodotoxin (Nα+ nnel blocker),AP-5 (NMDA receptor antagonist), CNQX (non-NMDA receptor antagonist), and strychnine (glycine receptor antagonist). Thus BMI induces membrane depolarization by directly acting on postsynaptic Vc SG neurons in a manner which is independent of GABAд receptors. These results suggest that other unknown mechanisms may be involved in BMI-induced membrane depolarization.

The porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) has six structural proteins which encoded by ORFs 2 to 7 are designated as GP2, 3, 4, 5, M and N, repectively. In this study, we determined the expression of each protein using novel transfer vector, pBmKSK4 which has the polyhedrin promoter of BmNPV and 6xHis tag. The recombinant transfer vector was co-transfected into Bm5 cells along with bBpGOZA DNA. Recombinant virus was purified by plaque assay and amplified in Bm5 cells. Expression of each protein was identified by SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis using anti-6xHis monoclonal antibody. The expression levels of the structural proteins in Bm5 cells were stronger than the expression system using pBacPAK9 transfer vector in Sf21 cells. As expected, GP5 was expressed at low levels from its structural properties and its toxicity for cells. In addition, each recombinant protein was purified using Ni-NTA spin columns. The ability to produce each protein in the baculovirus system indicates that these could be major candidates for the development of a vaccine against PRRSV.

The neurotrophin plays an important role in the development, differentiation and survival of the nervous system in vertebrates. It exerts its cellular effects through two different receptors, the Trk receptor tyrosine kinase neurotrophin receptor and the p75 neurotrophin receptor, a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily. Trk and p75 neurotrophin receptors utilize specific target proteins to transmit signals into the cell. An ankyrin-rich membrane spanning protein (ARMS) was identified as a new p75 interacting protein and serves as a novel downstream target of p75 neurotrophin receptor. We sought to delineate the interaction between p75 and ARMS by deletion constructs of p75 and green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged ARMS. We examined the interaction between these two proteins after overexpressing them in HEK-293 cells. Using both Western blot analysis and immunocytochemistry followed by confocal laser scanning microscopy, we found out that the intracellular domain of the p75 neurotrophin receptor was important for the interaction with ARMS. The results from this study suggest that ARMS may play an important role for mediating the signals from p75 neurotrophin receptor into the cell.

This study identified and compared the volatile flavor components of two commercial rice wines: one fermented using the mycelium of Phellinus linteus and a regular commercial rice wine. The volatile flavor components were isolated from the infusions by Porapak Q (50-80 mesh) column adsorption. The concentrated aroma extracts were then analyzed and identified by GC and GC-MS. Thirty-four kinds of flavor components were identified in the mycelium-fermented rice wine, including 11 alcohols, 8 esters, 3 ketones, 6 acids, 3 hydrocarbones, and 4 others. In the regular commercial rice wine, 36 kindss of flavor compounds were identified, including 9 alcohols, 6 esters, 4 ketones, 6 acids, 9 hydrocarbones, and 2 others. Therefore, the data indicate that the primary flavor components in the rice wines were alcohols and esters.