Vespa mandarinia (Vespidae: Hymenoptera) is one of the two largest true hornets known to science. The species is a noted predator of social Hymenoptera and a significant pest of managed honey bees in its native range, but is also known to feed on a wide variety of other species when available. Most of the prey records for V. mandarinia are derived from visual observations in Japan, with sparse observations from other parts of its native range. A population of V. mandarinia was detected in North America in 2019 and five nests were removed between 2019 and 2021. We extracted DNA from larval meconia from four nests collected in Washington State, USA, and amplified the CO1 region to determine the potential prey base. We compared these with sequences generated from three nests in the Republic of Korea, and with prey pellets collected from foraging hornets at several locations in Korea. Results indicate that the prey base was much wider in the ROK than the USA, although social Hymenoptera were the most abundant and common prey items in both regions. Prey range seems to be bound by an intersection of organism size and local biodiversity, with little evidence to suggest that the latter is a limiting factor in colony success.

본 연구는 불법적으로 식품에 사용될 수 있는 부정물질 11종에 대한 안전관리 강화를 위해 정량 및 정성 분석이 가능한 HPLC-DAD와 LC-MS/MS를 검증하기 위해 수행 되었다. 확립된 시험법은 AOAC 가이드라인에 따라 직선성, 정밀성, 정량한계 및 회수율 등을 통해 유효성을 확인 하였다. 본 실험에서 정량한계를 포함하여 검량선을 작성 하였고, 모두 0.99 이상의 직선성을 확인하였다. 또한 정확성은 LC (90.0-106%), LC-MS/MS (83.0-114%) 이고, 정 밀도는10% 이하로 재현성이 우수하였다. 확립된 시험법은 식품 중 부정물질 안전관리 및 모니터링에 활용될 것으로 사료된다.

Various viral and bacterial pathogens interact with environmental factors to cause diarrhea in piglets. Enterococcus spp. are Gram-positive anaerobic bacteria that are commonly found in the gastrointestinal tract of several animal species, including pigs. Enterococcus spp. have been reported to infect several animal species as a pathogen. However, gastrointestinal infection by Enterococcus hirae is rare in pigs; only a few cases have been reported worldwide. Four piglets with diarrhea were examined in the diagnostic laboratory of Optipharm Inc. (Cheongju, Korea). During the initial post-mortem examination, no disease lesions were observed. Upon microscopic examination, we found numerous Gram-positive cocci that were adhered to epithelial villi in the jejunum and ileum. However, the villi did not exhibit significant structural damage. Cultured bacteria were identified as E. hirae using the VITEK 2 system and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Using PCR, we also confirmed that viruses and protozoa that can potentially infect piglet intestines were absent. In antibiotic susceptibility test, the bacteria were resistant to most types of antibiotics. This study presents rare cases of E. hirae infection of the piglet small intestine, which can occur in association with diarrhea possibly by the continuous use of antibiotics.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of sea cucumber extract on skin as a natural cosmetics functional material. Subjective evaluation of cosmetics before and after were conducted with questionnaires regarding moisture content, sebum content, melanin index, and erythema index. Experiments were conducted on improvement efficacy using skin clinical trials and questionnaires to evaluate changes in perception of skin condition and efficiency of products. With the aim of minimizing skin irritation, the efficiency of the solvent used for extraction was an important factor, and the sea cucumber extract was harvested with efficient extraction conditions at a ratio of 1:10 of 50% ethanol. The study aimed to identify the suitability of sea cucumber extract as a functional cosmetics material to improve the moisturizing ability of skin and its effect on the skin by adding marine natural animal sea cucumber extract. Clinical studies on cosmetics skin containing sea cucumber extract, excellent skin improvement effect from all items of clinical experiment in experimental and control groups. Sea cucumber extract was proved to be a stable, non-adverse physiologically active substance against abnormal symptoms or side effects of skin reactions and skin problems. In addition, the study found excellent results that can lead to its use as a cosmetics material. This is expected to contribute to the development of various cosmetics industries.

본 연구는 다국적 기업의 친환경 연구개발 (R&D)의 결정요인과 이 결정요인들이 이해관계자들이 행사하는 압력에 의해 어떻게 조절되는지에 관한 연구이다. ASSET4 데이터베이스를 활용해 2004년부터 2012년까지 1,674개의 글로벌 다국적 기업들에 속하는 15,025개의 관측치들을 대상으로 연구한 결과, 기업의 환경 관련 평판이 낮을수록, 그리고 보상체계가 장기적 성향을 띨수록 친환경 R&D의 성과가 높은 것으로 나타났다. 또한 온실가스 배출량이 많은 산업에서 활동하는 기업들의 경우 배출권 거래제에 참여하게 되면 친환경 R&D의 성과가 더욱 높은 것으로 나타났다. 반면, 지리적 다각화의 정도가 높은 다국적 기업의 경우 배출권 거래제에 참여할 경우 친환경 R&D의 성과가 낮은 것으로 나타났으며, 이는 현재 시행되고 있는 배출권 거래제도의 유효성에 한계가 있음을 시사한다고 할 수 있다.

Daegu City has the most number of heat waves every year in the last 10 years among 7 metropolitan cities in Korea. As the slang, such as ‘Daefrica(Daegu + Africa)’ shown, Daegu City is recognized as a high temperature region in the summer. The purpose of this study is to understand the perception of urban green space as a mediator for heat wave mitigation for Daegu citizens. First, about 93.3% of the respondents perceived what the heat was. The most frequent cause of the increase in the number of heat waves was the increase in energy use (34.9%), ‘indiscriminate development’ (24.9%), ‘automobile and traffic increase’ (17.9%), ‘greenery reduction’ (12.6% ) were the most common cause. Second, 87.1% of respondents had positive perception about the mitigation effect on the effect of urban green space as a medium to mitigate the heat. In addition, 26.7% of respondents answered that they are very effective in mitigating the effect of the heat of urban greenery, and 95.1% of them responded more than ‘normal’. Third, as a result of examining the priorities of short and long-term heat-related policies, the short term was the highest (37.5%) in responding to ‘electricity tariff realization’ because of the high dependence on air conditioners. In contrast to the short-term perspective, the long-term policy for mitigating the heat wave was overwhelmingly supported by ‘expansion of urban green areas’ (50.7%). This is a result of confirming Daegu citizens’ consciousness which is highly evaluating the effect of urban green space as a medium for mitigating the heat. Fourth, the importance and performance of ‘urban green space type’ for mitigation of the heat wave were examined. The type of urban green space belonging to the phenomena maintenance area (quadrant Ⅰ), which both had high importance and performance, was classified as ‘neighborhood park’. In addition, it was surveyed as ‘Ssamji(mini) Park’ as the type of urban greenery in the concentrated improvement area (quadrant Ⅱ) where the importance is high but the performance is low. We believe that the value of urban green areas for mitigating the heat waves has been fully recognized through the recognition of Daegu citizens. We hope that the results of this study will be used as basic data for future Daegu city heat and urban greening policy.

We report facile solution processing of mesoporous hematite (α-Fe2O3) thin films for high efficiency solar-driven water splitting. Fe2O3 thin films were prepared on fluorine doped tin oxide(FTO) conducting substrates by spin coating of a precursor solution followed by annealing at 550 oC for 30 min. in air ambient. Specifically, the precursor solution was prepared by dissolving non-toxic FeCl3 as an Fe source in highly versatile dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO) as a solvent. The as-deposited and annealed thin films were characterized for their morphological, structural and optical properties using field-emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction(XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) and UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy. The photoelectrochemical performance of the precursor (α-FeOOH) and annealed (α-Fe2O3) films were characterized and it was found that the α-Fe2O3 film exhibited an increased photocurrent density of ~0.78 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE, which is about 3.4 times higher than that of the α-FeOOH films (0.23 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE). The improved performance can be attributed to the improved crystallinity and porosity of α-Fe2O3 thin films after annealing treatment at higher temperatures. Detailed electrical characterization was further carried out to elucidate the enhanced PEC performance of α-Fe2O3 thin films.