In order to foster AI experts needed in each industry in the era of digital transformation where AI and various industrial technologies converge, the AI Integrated Education Consortium was formed by the National Research Council of Science and Technology(NST) and AI education organizations (KISTI, KIRD, and ETRI) to establish and operate three-stage, six-course education programs. The training targets are employees of a total of 35 institutions, including research institutes, subordinate institutes, and research institutes under the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the cumulative target of 10,000 trainees is being set by 2024 after the implementation in 2022. In this study, we present the achievements and future prospects of the AI Integration Education, which is celebrating its third year of implementation as of April 1, 2024.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of smartphone size and use on fatigue of the extensor pollicis longus and abductor digiti minimi, and digiti minimi deformity. The 40 people assigned to the experimental group spent at least 6 hours using the smartphone and used the digiti minimi for support. The control group spent at least 3 hours using the smartphone, however did not use digiti mini for support. Questionnaires were used to measure smartphone usage, daily use duration, and method of holding the smartphone device. X-rays of distal interphalangeal joint angle deformity of the digiti minimi were assessed. Surface electromyography was used to analyze muscle fatigue. The angle deformity was significantly different between the experimental group and the control group, and fatigue of the extensor pollicis longus and abductor digiti minimi of the large smartphone users were high. The muscle fatigue was reduced when the smartphone size fit well with the user's hand. This study suggests that the size of the smartphone influence the fatigue of the hand muscles.

A study on indigenous diatoms was carried out at 10 sites from May 2014 to December 2016 in marine and freshwater in Korea. Seventeen species of diatoms are new to Korea and they are divided into 3 classes, 4 subclasses, 10 orders, 14 families, and 16 genera. The nomenclatures, references, dimensions, specimens examined, local habitat, distribution in Korea, and photograph are reported here. Seventeen species found in marine, freshwater, and brackish water showed species-specific habitats.

Rapid resistance detection of resistance level is most important step to manage the resistant population in Tetranychus urticae in Korea. Residual contact vial bioassay (RCV) and quantitative sequencing (QS) methods were employed to determine the resistance level and applied to measure the resistance level of 46 field population collected from rose, strawberry and apple trees. Most populations exhibited multiple resistance pattern to various types of acaricides. Especially, the resistance levels in mites from rose cultivation area were higher than those from strawberry and apple cultivation areas. The resistance level detection would provide a useful parameter enabling the proactive action for a proper resistant population management for T. urticae.

Pleomorphic adenoma is the most common benign tumor of the salivary glands. About 90% of these tumors occur in the parotid gland and 10% of them occur in the minor salivary glands. The most common sites for pleomorphic adenoma of the minor salivary glands are the palate, followed by the lips and the cheeks. Pleomorphic adenoma of the palate presents clinically as a painless, slow-growing mass found on posterior lateral aspect. In this case report, we report a case of pleomorphic adenoma of the palate in a 36-year old male patient whose initial diagnosis was vascular mass such as hemangioma or lymphangiohemangioma by preoperative CT and MRI.

Transcriptome analysis was conducted for the identification of genes associated with insecticide resistance in Frankliniella occidentalis. Resistant strain (FO_RDAHC) exhibited 39.2- ~ 533-fold resistance to acrinathrin, spinosad, emmamectin benzoate and thiamethoxam compared with a susceptible FO_RDA strain. Average 7.6 million reads (± 5,068,895 reads) were obtained from the pyrosequencing and were assembled into the draft CDS database. Gene annotation was conducted by BLAST (UniProt), Pfam, FUNCAT and COG analysis. In the deferentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis, 838 genes were up-regulated and 815 genes were down-regulated over 2-fold ratio in FO_RDAHC strain. Highly up-regulated genes included genes encoding several cuticle-related proteins, cytochrome P450s, esterases and transporter genes. An autotransporter protein gene exhibited the highest up-regulation (596 fold) whereas a GMC oxido-reductase revealed the highest down-regulation (12 fold). Further study would be necessary to validate the actual transcript levels of DEGs and to investigate their functional roles in insecticide resistance.

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.

Establishment of rapid resistance level detection system is essential step to adopt the adaptive management for the control of various kinds of resistant pest population. Here, we established acaricides resistance detection methods based on residual contact vial bioassay (RCV) and quantitative sequencing methods (QS), and applied to determine the resistance levels from several populations in two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, which has been considered as major notorious pest in rose cultivation area in worldwide. 12 acaricides were applicable to the RCV among 19 representative acaricides by showing the dose-dependent mortality within 8 hr, suggesting the acaricide suitability for the RCV might be varied by toxicity mechanism in each acaricides. The QS regression was established for 10 point mutations associated with five number of acaricides resistance such as organophosphate, pyrethroid, abamectin, bifenazate and etoxazol. The 95% prediction level was ranged from 10.8±5.4∼92.2±3.2%. The resistance levels were determined by above two detection methods from a total 12 strains. The laboratory-reared populations were revealed high susceptibility with low resistance allele frequencies to some acaricides, suggesting the several acaricides would be chosen for the control of those populations. However, the field-collected populations were exhibited a severe cross resistance with low susceptibility and high resistance allele frequency to almost tested acaricides, suggesting the current acaricides resistance levels are serious in rose cultivation area in Korea. The RCV and QS methods would be useful for the rapid and accurate collection of valuable information associated with acaricide resistance.

An assessment was made of the toxicity of 12 insecticides, three essential oils and Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) alone or in combination with the oil major constituents, (E)-anethole (AN), (E)-cinnamaldehyde (CA) and eugenol (EU), to third instars from bamboo forest collected Aedes albopictus and rice paddy field collected Anopheles sinensis resistant to various groups of insecticides. The toxicity of the test insecticides, essential oils and binary mixtures of Bti and the oil constituents (1:1 ratio) was evaluated using a direct-contact mortality bioassay. Binary mixtures of B.t.i. and CA, AN or EU were significantly more toxic against Ae. albopictus larvae (LC50, 0.0084, 0.0134 and 0.0237 mg/l) and An. sinensis larvae (0.0159, 0.0388 and 0.0541 mg/l) than either B.t.i. (1.7884 and 2.1681 mg/l) or CA (11.46 and 19.43 mg/l), AN (16.66 and 25.11 mg/l) or EU (24.60 and 32.14 mg/l) alone. Based on the co-toxicity coefficient (CC) and synergistic factor (SF), the three binary mixtures operated in a synergy pattern (CC, 140.7–368.3 and SF, 76–213 for Ae. albopictus CC, 75.1–245.3 and SF, 40–136 for An. sinensis).The binary mixtures of Bti and essential oil constituents described, particularly (E)-cinnamaldehyde, merit further study as potential mosquito larvicides for the control of malaria vector mosquito populations in light of global efforts to reduce the level of highly toxic synthetic insecticides in the aquatic environment.

Strawberry, Fragaria ananassa Duchesne, is one of the important horticultural crops cultivated in greenhouses. Tetranychus urticae is one of major strawberry pests, and Neoseiulus californicus and Phytoseiulus persimilis have been used as biological control agents for control of T. urticae. The interactions between T. urticae and N. californicus and between T. urticae and P. persimilis were investigated to compare their control efficiency for T. urticae on a spatially-structured strawberry leaf disc area at different temperatures and on different treatments. The experimental arena was an array of leaf discs (3 cm diameter) placed upside down on a water-saturated cotton pad in an aluminum pan (17.4 x 21.5 cm). Twenty leaf discs (4 x 5) were placed adjacent each other for allowing dispersal of T. urticae and its predatory mites. The temperature conditions were 20, 25, and 30°C and there were six different treatments. The overall population densities of T. urticae were influenced by temperature (20, 25, and 30°C) in N. californicus treatment. In the same temperature condition, P.persimilis was more effective than N. californicus to control T. uritcae. Two predator systems were better than one predator systems to suppress the population density of T. urticae at 25°C. Some results of this study could be used to understand the spatial association of T. urticae and its predatory mites in greenhouse crops and fields.

The hemipteran whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) is one of the most destructive pests damaging more than 600 agricultural crop species worldwide. The B and Q biotypes are most widely spread in Korea but they are not distinguishable based on morphological characters. In order to search for protein markers that can be employed for rapid and accurate diagnosis of biotypes, two-dimensional PAGE (2DE) in conjunction with mass spectroscopic analysis were conducted. Eleven biotype-specific spots were repeatedly identified during three repetitions of 2DE and analyzed by Q-TOF. One of the B type-specific protein spots was identified as carboxylesterase 2 (Coe2). The transcript level of coe2 was determined to be 6 times higher in B type than in Q type by quantitative real-time PCR. In addition, comparison of genomic DNA sequence of coe2 between B and Q types identified a biotype-specific intron, from which specific primer sets were designed. One-step PCR using these biotype-specific primers successfully distinguished the two biotypes in a high accuracy. Availability of the biotype-specific protein and DNA markers will greatly improve the detection of B. tabaci biotype in the field.

The study was conducted to explore whether environmental differences, in this case the physical characteristics of abaxial leaf surfaces of strawberry cultivars ('Maehyang' and 'Sulhyang' cultivars), affect the functional response of adult female N. californicus preying on immature stages (egg, larva and nymph) of T. urticae. We also evaluated the functional response of N. californicus to eggs of T. urticae at different temperatures (15, 20, 25, 30 and 35℃). We conducted a logistic regression of the proportion of prey consumed as a function of initial prey density to identify functional response types, and used nonlinear squares regression and the random predator equation to estimate attack rates and handling times. The functional response of adult female N. californicus to T. urticae was not influenced by non-glandular trichomes and epicuticular waxes on the abaxial leaf but was affected by temperature. Overall, the functional response of adult female N. californicus exhibited a type 2 functional response to T.urticae. The handling time of N. californicus was highest (1.9970) against T. urticae nymphs. The attack rate did not change much at 15-30℃, but the handling time decreased linearly with increasing temperature. At 35℃, the attack rate was highest (0.1876) and the handling time was lowest (0.9296). The results of this study may be used to evaluate the potential of N. californicus to suppress T. urticae and to estimate parameters for relevant prey-predator models.

To establish a rapid diagnosis method for the monitoring of acaricide resistance in the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, we evaluated the performance of residual contact vial (RCV) method as a routine bioassay for T. urticae by using two widely used acaricides, abamectin and tebupenpyrad. Appropriate concentrations of test acaricides were dissolved in acetone and evenly coated (100 μl) onto the inside wall of a 4-ml glass vial using a rolling machine. The average survival times in untreated control vial was longer than 12 hrs in the absence of food or water regardless of cap being closed or open. Webbing behavior of mites inside the vial, which may interfere with maximum chemical contact, began to be observed from 8 hrs post treatment. The minimum concentrations causing 100% mortality within 8 hrs posttreatment in a susceptible strain of T. urticae were determined to be 30 and 60 ppm in abamectin and tebupenpyrad, respectively. Dose-response curve was significantly affected by temperature in both acaricides, in which the knockdown rate increased greatly as temperature increased. The endpoint mortality at 6-8 hrs posttreatment, however, was not significantly affected by temperature. Nymphal stage of mites showed more rapid intoxication response than adults but endpoint mortality at 6-8 hrs posttreatment was not substantially different between developmental stages. When compared with the results from conventional spray method, RCV method showed moderate to high correlation coefficients (r=0.51~0.98), suggesting that it is a reliable in determining susceptibility of T. urticae. The vial-coated pesticides were stable at least one year when stored at -20°C as determined by LC-MS/MS analysis. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the bioassay results in repeated experiments with three different persons, indicative of high reproducibility of RCV. The RCV diagnostic kit, when used by farmers on site, should provide crucial and essential information for the selection of most suitable acaricides for different field populations of T. urticae.