Adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder is a common cause of pain that occurs during shoulder movement, thereby restricting shoulder rotation in clinical practice. Although most patients respond to pain relief treatment (NSAID or corticosteroids) by improving their range of motion, it remains poorly understood without any definitive treatment algorithm. In addition to immune cells, synoviocytes, chondrocytes and osteoblasts in the joint are known to produce pro-inflammatory mediators such as reactive oxygen species (ROS), inflammatory cytokines and lipid mediators, presumably contributing to the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA) and adhesive capsulitis. Although inflammation and also fibrosis are proposed to be the basic pathological changes of a frozen shoulder, there is a lack of information regarding the downstream targets of the pro-inflammatory ROS signaling pathway in the synoviocytes and also how these ROS targets are modulated at the transcription level by a corticosteroid - dexamethasone. In this study, we used human fibroblast like synoviocytes (HFLS) to characterize the signaling targets of ROS by employing a human DNA microarray tool and studied the role of dexamethasone in this process. Our data suggest that several genes such as FOS, FOSB and NFkBIZ, which are known to be involved in pro- or anti- inflammation response, are modulated at the transcription level by ROS and dexamethasone.

Major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs) are important protein components of bee royal jelly (RJ) and exhibit various biologicaland pharmacological activities. The antimicrobial activities of royalisins and the jelleines contained within MRJP 1 andMRJP 2 in RJ have been elucidated. However, the antimicrobial effects of other bee RJ MRJPs remain largely unknown.In this study, we demonstrated that the Asiatic honeybee (Apis cerana) MRJP 4 (AcMRJP4) exhibits antimicrobial activitiesagainst bacteria, fungi, and yeast. Recombinant AcMRJP4 was expressed as a 63-kDa protein in baculovirus-infected insectcells. However, some of the recombinant AcMRJP4 proteins were cleaved into two fragments (i.e., 48-kDa (AcMRJP4-48)and 15-kDa (AcMRJP4-15) proteins) by the proteolytic cleavage of the C-terminus of the recombinant AcMRJP4. Interestingly,AcMRJP4, AcMRJP4-48, and AcMRJP4-15 exhibited antimicrobial activities, with AcMRJP4-15 exhibiting the highestantimicrobial activity, followed by AcMRJP4. AcMRJP4-15, which is a hydrophilic peptide with 88 amino acid residuesthat contains a high content of Asn and positively charged amino acids, induced structural damage in the cell walls ofthe assayed bacteria, fungi, and yeast. Altogether, our data demonstrated that AcMRJP4 functions as an antimicrobial agent.

Metformin (1,1-dimethylbiguanide hydrochloride), derived from French lilac (Galega officinalis), is a first-line anti-diabetic drug prescribed for patients with type 2 diabetes. However, the role of metformin in odontoblastic cell differentiation is still unclear. This study therefore undertook to examine the effect of metformin on regulating odontoblast differentiation in MDPC-23 mouse odontoblastic cells derived from mouse dental papilla cells. As compared to controls, metformin significantly accelerated the mineralization, significantly increased and accelerated the expressions of ALP and Col I mRNAs, and significantly increased the accelerated expressions of DSPP and DMP-1 mRNAs, during differentiation of MDPC-23 cells. There was no alteration in cell proliferation of MDPC-23 cells, on exposure to metformin. These results suggest that the effect of metformin on MDPC-23 mouse odontoblastic cells derived from mouse dental papilla cells, facilitates the odontoblast differentiation and mineralization, without altering the cell proliferation.

Dermanyssus gallinae is parasitic to chicken, and they cause many damages such as disturbing sleep reducing for body weight and egg production by blood-sucking. To develop acaricide against D. gallinae, The acaricidal activity of 40 species plant extract were examined. Cnidium officinale extracted by Me-OH showed 82.0% acaricidal activity after treated 48 hrs at 4,000 ppm. The hexane fraction showed 92.4% mortality against D. gallinae at 48 hrs at 2,000 ppm. Purification of the biologically active constituents from the hexane extraction with acaricidal activity was done using silica gel open column chromatography and HPLC. H1122 fraction gave 80.9% mortality to D. gallinae at 400 ppm after treated 48 hrs. H1122 fraction was analyzed by GC-MS and NMR.

Ginger was steamed at 121 o C and 1.5 lb/in 2 for 30 min, dried at 60 o C for 12 h, and each step was repeated nine times. During processing, the lightness (L* value) and yellowness (b* value) decreased from 85.65±0.33 and 26.99±0.20 in the non-treated ginger to 56.91±0.25 and 16.69±0.06 in ginger treated for the ninth treatment. On the other hand, redness (a* value) increased from -1.51±0.03 to 7.34±0.08 on the eight treatment and then decreased to 7.21±0.04 on the ninth theatment. The contents of 6-gingerol decreased from 3.257±0.067 mg/g in the non-treated ginger to 0.567±0.036 mg/g on the theatment, whereas the contents of 6-shogaol increased from 1.299±0.050 mg/g to 2.999±0.089 mg/g on the sixth treatment and decreased to 2.099±0.039 on the ninth treatment. The contents of 10-gingerol decreased slightly from 1.106±0.125 mg/g to 0.806±0.026 mg/g. Unlike the 6- and 10-gingerol, the contents of 8-gingerol did not change greatly, with values between 0.916±0.005 mg/g and 1.106±0.005 mg/g being observed during processing. The tyrosinase inhibitory activities were increased from 43.42±11.45% in the non-treated ginger to 100% on the sixth treatment and then decreased to 51.98±7.36% on the theatment. The antioxidative activity was retained during processing.

This studies was conducted to compare functional diversity of terrestrial arthropods in commercial apple orchards under conventional and organic practices. We collected terrestiral arthropods using pitfall traps in four conventional and seven organic apple orchards from April to October, 2012-2014. Sampled arthropods were identified at the species level and then classified three functional groups (detritivores, herbivores and beneficial arthropods included pollinators, parasitoids and predators). Biodiversity was analyzed with species richness, abundance and shannon index for each group and compared between conventional and organic orchards. In results, species richness of detritivores and benefical arthropods were higher in organic orchards than in conventional orchards (detritivores: t=-2.68, df=9, P=0.03; beneficial arthropods: t=-3.98, df=9, P=0.003). Organic orchards showed significant difference at abundance of beneficial arthropods (t=-3.33, df=9, P=0.008) and higher shannon index at detritivores (t=-2.36, df=9, P=0.04) than conventional orchards. However, all biodiversity indices of herbivores were not significantly different between conventional and organic orchards at 95% confidence level.

The subfamily Pimplinae currently includes 1,686 worldwide species in 45 genera. 36 species in 16 genera have been recorded from South Korea. Among them, the genus Delomerista is a small sized group in the subfamily Pimplinae with 18 described species from palaearctic, nearctic, oriental regions. The South Korean Delomerista wes newly recorded for the first time from South Korea in this study. The genus Perithous is a small group in this subfamily with 17 species from palaearctic, nearctic, oriental regions. The taxonomic study of the South Korean Perithous was initiated by Kim (1955) reported one species, Perithous scurra (Panzer, 1804). The genus Xanthopimpla is a moderate size in the subfamily Pimplinae with 261 species from entire regions, except nearctic and ethiopia regions. The existing South Korean Xanthopimpla includes only one species, Xanthopimpla punctata (Fabricius, 1781). In this study, we report six unrecorded species, Delomerista mandibularis (Gravenhorst, 1829), Delomerista pfankuchi Brauns, 1905, Perithous albicinctus (Gravenhorst, 1829), Perithous townesorum (Gupta, 1982), Perithous speculator Haupt, 1954 and Xanthopimpla clavata Krieger, 1914 of subfamily Pimplinae from South Korea.

Nanosized zeolites were prepared in an autoclave using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), tetrapropylammonium hydroxide (TPAOH), and H2O, at various hydrothermal synthesis temperatures. Using transmission electron microscopy and particle size analysis, the nanopowder particulate sizes were revealed to be 10-300 nm. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that the synthesized nanopowder was silicalite-1 zeolite. Using atomic layer deposition, the fabricated zeolite nanopowder particles were coated with nanoscale TiO2 films. The TiO2 films were prepared at 300 oC by using Ti[N(CH3)2]4 and H2O as precursor and reactant gas, respectively. In the TEM analysis, the growth rate was ~0.7 Å/cycle. Zeta potential and sedimentation test results indicated that, owing to the electrostatic repulsion between TiO2-coated layers on the surface of the zeolite nanoparticles, the dispersibility of the coated nanoparticles was higher than that of the uncoated nanoparticles. In addition, the effect of the coated nanoparticles on the photodecomposition was studied for the irradiation time of 240 min; the concentration of methylene blue was found to decrease to 48%.

MicroRNA (miRNA, miR) is essential in regulating cell differentiation either by inhibiting mRNA translation or by inducing its degradation. However, the role of miRNA in odontoblastic cell differentiation is still unclear. In this study, we examined the molecular mechanism of miR-27-mediated regulation of odontoblast differentiation in MDPC-23 mouse odontoblastic cells derived from mouse dental papilla cells. The results of the present study demonstrated that the miR-27 expression increases significantly during MDPC-23 odontoblastic cell differentiation. Furthermore, miR-27 up-regulation promotes the differentiation of MDPC-23 cells and accelerates mineralization without cell proliferation. The over-expression of miR-27 significantly increased the expression levels of Wnt1 mRNA and protein. In addition, the results of target gene prediction revealed that Wnt1 mRNA has an miR-27 binding site in its 3’UTR, and is increased by miR-27. These results suggested that miR-27 promotes MDPC-23 odontoblastic cell differentiation by targeting Wnt1 signaling. Therefore, miR-27 is a critical odontoblastic differentiation molecular target for the development of miRNA based therapeutic agents in dental medicine.

Calepitrimerus vitis (Nalepa) is a grapevine pest and distributed worldwide. This study was conducted to identify grapevine damage related to density of C. vitis and to suggest an effective control time. The damaged flower buds displayed retarded growth and became dried up, and symptoms of damaged leaves such as malformed and bronzed leaves were observed. Flower cluster and leaves were collected and density of the grape rust mite were observed by using a washing and sieving method. The highest mean density (±SE) of C. vitis was found to be 672.6±112.9 per flower cluster with mid-level damage, and 450.1±66.5 per 2 leaves was found on the damaged leaves. These severe damage symptoms were observed in the early spring, and the density of the grape rust mite was significantly higher as 80 times in damaged vineyard than in the undamaged at the early growth stages of the grapevine. To determine the emergence time of the grape rust mite from lower part of a winter bud the ratio of density of C. vitis on upper-bud to lower-bud was observed. On 13 April 2015, 80% of the grape rust mites were observed on upper-bud where the mite could feed at the bud burst stage. Therefore, once the symptoms of damaged flower clusters and leaves are observed, acaricides should be sprayed before inflorescence emergence, and at the early growth stage between bud burst and leaf development in following year. This would allow the decrease of the density of C. vitis in early spring, and the progression of severe damage could be prevented.