Bone fractures are most often seen in racetrack horses because of the high level of intensity in racing. These issues are the main cause of decreased performance in racehorses. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been explored to improve intra-articular therapy in racehorses. MSCs are essential for the repair and regeneration of damaged tissues. In this study, the effect of intra-articular injection of MSCs in racehorses was investigated. Before accessing the MSC therapy, synovial fluids were obtained from the fracture site of racehorses, and adipose tissue was collected for MSC isolation. Using the MSC specific marker, adipose tissue-derived MSCs were identified. The racehorses received intra-articular injection of autologous MSCs (or allogeneic) (3 × 107 cells/3 mL). After 1 or 2 weeks, synovial fluids were collected from racehorses. To test the effect of MSC injection using ELISA, we analyzed inflammatory factors from the untreated samples compared to MSC-treated samples of racehorses. The level of pro-inflammatory factors (interleukin-1β and prostaglandin E2) was significantly decreased in synovial fluids of MSC-injected racehorses, compared to before accessing the MSC therapy, whereas, the level of anti-inflammatory factor (interleukin-10) was higher than prior to accessing the MSC therapy. Further studies are needed to investigate the anti-inflammatory mechanism of MSC in racehorses.

The sintering mechanisms of nanoscale copper powders have been investigated. A molecular dynamics (MD) simulation with the embedded-atom method (EAM) was employed for these simulations. The dimensional changes for initial-stage sintering such as characteristic lengths, neck growth, and neck angle were calculated to understand the densification behavior of copper nano-powders. Factors affecting sintering such as the temperature, powder size, and crystalline misalignment between adjacent powders have also been studied. These results could provide information of setting the processing cycles and material designs applicable to nano-powders. In addition, it is expected that MD simulation will be a foundation for the multi-scale modeling in sintering process.

Oncholaimid nematode, Oncholaimus secundicollis Shimada, Kajihara and Mawatari, 2009, is firstly reported based on a comparative morphological study. The present specimens of O. secundicollis are collected from rocky intertidal seagrass on the eastern coast of Korea. Oncholaimus secundicollis is distinguished from all of its congeners by the following combination of morphological characteristics: buccal cavity large with thick cuticular wall and three teeth, left subventral tooth larger than right subventral or dorsal teeth, and the presence of two remarkable precloacal papillae with nine pairs of cloacal setae and single ventral tail papilla with two pairs of short setae. In this study, we provide taxonomic description and illustration of unrecorded species of the genus Oncholaimus.

Three unrecorded species of free-living marine nematodes, belonging to genus Enoplus Dujardin, 1845 collected from rocky intertidal seagrass on the eastern coast of Korea, are described and illustrated. Enoplus taipingensis Zhang and Zhou, 2012 is characterized by longer body size, a series of lateral setae throughout the tail in male, the presence of trumpet-shaped precloacal supplement with well-dilated proximal end, and the presence of spicules with five to eight semicircular plates. Enoplus meridionalis Steiner, 1921 is characterized by the presence of trumpetshaped precloacal supplement with slightly dilated proximal end, paired massive spicules, and tail with two pairs of stout terminal setae. Enoplus mammillatus Timm, 1959 is easily distinguished from the congeners by narrow tubular-shaped precloacal supplement. In this study, we provide detailed morphological features of three Enoplus species by differential interference contrast microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. This is the first report on the species of the genus Enoplus from the Korean waters.

The purpose of this study was to find out an inspiratory muscles training program’s therapeutic effects on stroke patients’respiratory function. For the purpose, this study targeted 20 stroke patients being hospitalized in K hospital in Daegu, and diveded the patients into the both groups of Inspiratory muscle training(IMT) group and control group, randomization. The 10 patients in the IMT group was applied the inspiratory muscles training. The control group was composed of other 10 patients. IMT group was given a inspiratory muscle training program for 30 minutes per times, 5 times a week for 6 weeks. The investigator measured the patients’respiratory function compared changes in the function and ability before and after the IMT. The results of this study are as follows. Investigating the inspiratory muscle training group’s lung functions, there appeared some significant differences in the tests the FVC(Forced vital capacity), FEV1(Forced expired volume in one second) before and after the training(p<.05), but the control group had no significant in the same tests before and after(p<.05). The differences in the both groups after depending the inspiratory muscles training were significantly found in the tests of FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC(p<.05). The maximum inspiratory pressure showed some significant differences in the inspiratory muscle training group(p<.05), but didn't show any significant difference in the control group(p>.05). Conclusionally, it will be judged that the inspiratory muscles training program will improve stroke patients’respiratory function, and it is considered that will move up stroke patients’gait and body function.

백두대간 구룡령-약수산 마루금에 22개의 방형구(100m2)를 설정하여 식생을 조사하였다. 식생군집을 분석한 결과 신갈나무-까치박달나무-당단풍나무군집, 신갈나무군집, 층층나무-신갈나무군집 등 3개의 군집으로 분류되었다. 백두대간 구룡령-약수산 마루금은 대부분 신갈나무가 우점하고 있었으며, 일부지역에서 까치박달나무와 층층나무 등이 혼효하고 있었다. 수종간의 상관관계에서 신갈나무와 노린재나무, 철쭉; 피나무와 찰피나무, 노린재나무; 찰피나무와 노린재나무, 철쭉; 거제수나무와 고로쇠나무; 노린재나무와 철쭉 등의 수종 간에는 높은 정의 상관이 인정되었다. 당단풍나무와 노린재나무, 철쭉 등의 수종 간에는 높은 부의 상관이 인정되었다. 조사지의 군집별 종다양성 지수는 0.8170~1.1446범위로 백두대간에 위치한 국립공원들의 능선부 식생구조 보다는 약간 낮게 나타났다.

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of E. coli on boar sperm quality and reproductive performance in sows after artificial insemination. Three different levels of E. coli were artificially inoculated to semen with following concentrations; Control, 500, 5,000 and 50,000 colony forming unit (cfu)/ml. Semen samples were preserved at 17℃ for 5 days. Sperm motility was significantly decreased (p<0.05) on day 3 in the group inoculated with 5,000cfu/ml compared to control groups. In all treatment groups, sperm motility was gradually decreased as storage time increased, but the decline pattern was more drastic in the groups inoculated with 5,000 and 50,000 cfu/ml groups from day 3 (p<0.05) compared to control group. After 3 day of storage at 17℃, sperm viability in sample inoculated with the highest concentration (50,000 cfu/ml) of bacteria was less (p<0.05) than that of control group. The pH of semen sample pH was maintained 7.2～7.5 in all groups during the experimental period. No differences (p>0.05) were found for both storage time and bacterial concentration. The pregnancy rate and live born piglets tend to decrease by increasing the concentration of E. coli in semen. In particular, the rate of pregnancy was lower in the group inoculated with 50,000 cfu/ml (58.3%) compare to the other groups (81.8, 75.0, 76.5%). These results suggest that the contamination of E. coli in boar semen negatively affects fertilizing ability of boar sperm and the reproductive performance obtained from sows after artificial insemination.

Enhanced green fluoresce protein gene (egfp) was expressed in Beauveria bassiana ERL836 based on the Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (AtMT) method in this study. The ERL836 transformants were generated with pCambia-egfp binary vector. Ten transformants were randomly selected and analyzed for the T-DNA insertion and gene expression. The results revealed that 60% of the fungal putative transformants were inserted by the T-DNA fragment. Of these transformants, 33.33% (2 transformants) expressed the egfp gene. The egfp transformants showed strong green fluorescence with different expression levels. The results of this study could provide a reference for foreign protein expression in B. bassiana by using the AtMT method.

Osmia cornifrons plays a major role in the pollination of orchards, but basic information on vitellogenin and the oocyte development is limited. To better understand vitellogenin in hymenopteran insects, we cloned a cDNA encoding vitellogenin from the hornfaced bee O. cornifrons. O. cornifrons vitellogenin cDNA contains 5477 bp with an open reading frame of 1,783 amino acid residues, and has a predicted molecular mass of approximately 200.21 kDa and a pI of 6.55. O. cornifrons vitellogenin possesses four consensus (RXXR/S) cleavage sites and has conserved DGXR and GL/ICG motifs in the C-terminus. The deduced amino acid sequence of the O. cornifrons vitellogenin cDNA showed a 66% identity with Megachile rotundata, 53% to Apis mellifera, 51% to Bombus ignitus, and 42%-30% with other hymenopteran insect vitellogenins. Phylogenetic analysis showed that O. cornifrons vitellogenin clustered with vitellogenins from Megachildae, Apidae, Vespidae, and Formicidae species but not with those from Pteromalidae, Aphelinidae or Ichneumonidae species.

Inhibitor cysteine knot (ICK) peptides exhibit ion channel blocking, insecticidal, and antimicrobial activities, but currently, no functional roles for bee-derived ICK peptides have been identified. In this study, a bee (Apis cerana) ICK peptide (AcICK) that acts as an antifungal peptide and as an insecticidal venom toxin was identified. AcICK contains an ICK fold that is expressed in the epidermis, fat body, or venom gland and is present as a 6.6-kDa peptide in bee venom. Recombinant AcICK peptide (expressed in baculovirus-infected insect cells) bound directly to Beauveria bassiana and Fusarium graminearum, but not to Escherichia coli or Bacillus thuringiensis. Consistent with these findings, AcICK showed antifungal activity, indicating that AcICK acts as an antifungal peptide. Furthermore, AcICK expression is induced in the fat body and epidermis after injection with B. bassiana. These results provide insight into the role of AcICK during the innate immune response following fungal infection. Additionally, we show that AcICK has insecticidal activity. Our results demonstrate a functional role for AcICK in bees: AcICK acts as an antifungal peptide in innate immune reactions in the body and as an insecticidal toxin in venom. The finding that the AcICK peptide functions with different mechanisms of action in the body and in venom highlights the two-pronged strategy that is possible with the bee ICK peptide.

An easy and rapid resistance detection protocol for the Western flower thrips Frankliniella occidentalis was established based on the residual contact vial bioassay (RCV), in which insecticide resistance levels can be estimated at 8 h-post treatment of diagnostic doses. The RDA strain was used as a reference susceptible strain, which has been reared under laboratory conditions over 10 years without exposure to any insecticides. Seven insecticides were tested for the determination of diagnostic dose. Among them, five insecticides (chlorfenapyr, acrinathrin, spinosad, emmamectin benzoate and thiamethoxam, ranged as 0.03 ~ 0.42 μg-1cm2) were applicable to the RCV. However, two insecticides (omethoate and imidacloprid) were not able to be used for the RCV because the treated inner surface of glass vials by these insecticides were too viscous, causing non-specific mortality. The RCV detection kit was employed for the estimation of resistance levels for the five insecticides in five local populations. Almost field-collected populations revealed high levels of resistance to the four insecticides (acrinathrin, spinosad, emmamectin benzoate and thiamethoxam) by showing less than 50% mortality. The baseline resistance detection by RCV method will facilitate the selection of proper insecticides for farmers to manage insecticide resistant-populations of F. occidentalis.

We investigated the insect community along altitudinal gradient to gather basic data for distributional monitoring of insect species in the forest ecosystem. The investigation area was Seon-gaksan (Mt.) in Jinan-gun, Jeollabuk-do province, where the bucket-light trap and pit-fall trap for quantification were installed in Quercus vegetation at altitude of 300m, 600m and 900m. The field collecting was performed on May, July and September 2013 respectively. ANOVA analysis was conducted to analyze the significance between insect species along altitude using the collected insect community data. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results showed statistically significant differences among ground-beetles and ants abundance with altitude as a response variable. Although we expected a distinct cluster with the difference of altitude at each study site, nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMS) showed distinct clusters with the moth, ground-beetles, and ant assemblage at altitudinal increase and sampling month. In the result, a total of 309 species in 18 families of nocturnal moths were collected by bucket-light trap. The insects collected in pit-fall trap were ground-beetles with 196 individuals of 26 species and ants with 11,276 individuals of 14 species respectively.

Lung cancer caused by diverse changes in cells resulted by exposure to carcinogens found in tobacco smoke, the environment, or sequential accumulation of genetic changes to the normal epithelial cells of the lung. An assessment was made of the anti-proliferative activity of constituents from silkworm feces against 11 human cancer cell lines, including A549 and H727 lung cancer cell lines, using a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay. The ethanol extract of silkworm feces was proved to have anti-proliferative activity against all 11 species of human cancer cell lines. The biologically active constituent was characterized as vomifoliol (blumenol A) (1) and stigmasterol (2) by spectroscopic analysis ,including MS and NMR. In conclusion, global efforts to reduce the level of antitcancer agents justify further studies on the silkworm feces-derived materials containing vomifoliol and stigmasterol as potential anticancer products or lead compounds for the prevention or eradication from human lung cancer.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of swiss ball program training on lower extremity function of old elderly with mild cognitive impairment. The subjects were 30 mild cognitive impairment eldrly people aged between 65 and 80, who were divided into the swiss ball program training group(n=15) and the control group(n=15). The swiss ball program training group engaged in a 50-minute exercise session using. Lower extremity function scale of the two groups were measured before and after the intervention. The results are as follows. According to the swiss ball program training conducted to examine the effects of the training on lower extremity function, Moreover, the two groups showed significant differences in lower extremity function. These results indicate that virtual reality training is effective in improving lower extremity function. To conclusion, swiss ball program was found to have a positive effect on elderly lower extremity function. Swiss ball program training can be proposed as a form of fall prevention exercise for the mild cognitive impairment. Swiss ball program may be helpful to reduce the incidence of dementia and behavioral complications.

A Tenebrio molitor larva that is called mealworm is widely used as feed for raising a pet. Also, it is the insect that would be produced as the edible food for human. For these reasons, many researchers are revealing about physiologic characteristic of Tenebrio molitor to make good use of it. However, morphological characteristic of different larval stage is not specifically indicated and researchers have different opinions about the average number of Tenebrio molitor’s instar until now. This study, therefore, was carried out to examine the physiological and morphological characteristics of Tenebrio molitor larva in different larval stages, and the average number of Tenebrio molitor’s instar. As a result, all of the Tenebrio molitor larvae had 7~8 days during their incubation period and 3~4 days during the 1st instar period. After the 1st instar, there were comparatively large differences in the number of days in each instar. Before emergence, most of the larvae comparatively showed 15th~17th instars, particularly, the largest rate of pupae (28.83%) was observed in the 17th instar. In terms of the body length of each Tenebrio molitor larval stage, the body length was gradually increased by the 17th instar. Beyond the 17th instar, however, the body length was smaller than 17th instar. In the 1st instar, the larva had white color, and the color gradually changed into brown from the 2nd instar. Through this study, we could identify the accurate incubation period, 1st instar period, the average number of instar, body length and the color change in different larval stages. These results would be used as a fundamental data for further study about the physiological and morphological characteristic of each instar period.

Insect cuticular melanization is regulated by the prophenoloxidase (proPO)- activating system, which is also involved in the innate immune reaction. Here, we demonstrate how the differentiation of the proPO-activating system is regulated toward a cuticular melanization or innate immunity function in silkworm (Bombyx mori) pupae. Our results indicate that the differential and spatial regulation of key components, such as the proPO-activating factor, tyrosine hydroxylase, and porPOs, primes the proPO-activating system for either cuticular melanization or innate immunity. This dual strategy for cuticular melanization in development and innate immunity upon infection demonstrates a two-pronged defense mechanism that is mediated by the priming of the proPO system.

Bumblebee, Bombus terrestris is widely used to pollinate various crops, especially tomato, in greenhouses. Mason bee, Osmia cornifrons, which is using as apple pollinator. Here we investigated characteristics on pollinating activity of B. terrestris and O. conifrons at different weather conditions in apple orchard. The foraging activity of O. conifrons was more sensitive than that of B. terrestris at weather conditions including temperature, illumination intensity and wind velocity. The pollinating activity of O. conifrons was very low than that of B. terrestris at a low temperature, cloudy, rainy and windy weather. Therefore, Our results indicated that B. terrestris was suitable for apple pollinator than O. conifrons, especially in low temperature and bad weather.

Bumblebee venom serine protease inhibitors have been shown to inhibit plasmin activity. In this study, a bumblebee (Bombus ignitus) venom serine protease inhibitor (BiVSPI) that acts as an antimicrobial factor was identified. BiVSPI is a 55-amino acid mature peptide with ten conserved cysteine residues and a P1 methionine residue. BiVSPI was expressed in the venom gland and was present as an 8-kDa peptide in venom. Recombinant BiVSPI expressed in baculovirusinfected insect cells exhibited inhibitory activity against chymotrypsin, but not trypsin. BiVSPI also exhibited inhibitory activity against microbial serine proteases, such as subtilisin A (Ki 6.57 nM) and proteinase K (Ki 7.11 nM), indicating that BiVSPI acts as a microbial serine protease inhibitor. In addition, BiVSPI was also shown to bind directly to Bacillus subtilis, B. thuringiensis, and Beauveria bassiana, but not to Escherichia coli. Consistent with these results, BiVSPI exhibited antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria and fungi. These findings provide novel evidence for the antimicrobial function of this bumblebee venom serine protease inhibitor.