The pitch-based activated carbons were prepared with KOH/KMnO4 as a multiple function activation agent to increase the specific capacitance of a supercapacitor electrode active material. And the porous structure and electrochemical properties of activated carbon were analyzed on varying amounts of KMnO4. KMnO4 was decomposed into K2O, MnO, and O2 at the activation temperature of KOH, and MnO was introduced to activated carbon. K2O/ O2 reacts with a surrounding pitch to generate micropores and forms a pathway that exposes MnO to the outside. It also affects to the specific surface area of activated carbon like KOH chemical activation. The enhanced specific surface area and introduced MnO in activated carbon led to a 28.9% increase in specific capacitance.

Oxalic acid has a nematicidal activity against the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita. High producer of oxalic acid was isolated, and then named as Aspergillus niger F22. Oxalic acid production was investigated under various temperatures from 20 – 33oC and rotational speeds in 5 L jar fermenters. Yield of oxalic acid increased with decreasing temperature. The highest yield was obtained at 23oC, showing the yield of oxalic acid of 8.7 g/L, whereas oxalic acid production was least at 33oC. At 20oC, the yield was lower than that of 23oC. At a rotational speed of 300 rpm, serious oxygen depletion was present from 48 - 72 h, resulting in low productivity of 26.2 mg /L·h. When a rotational speed was set at 600 rpm, dissolved oxygen tension was over 40% and oxalic acid production increased up to approximately 55%. Viscosity during the culture differed with temperatures. Viscosity increased with the increment of temperatures. When A. niger F22 was cultured at 23oC, viscosity was 810 cP, which was favorable for oxalic acid production.

Acetylcholinesterase 1 (AmAChE1) has low catalytic activity and is abundantly expressed in both neuronal and non-neuronal tissues. In previous experiments, we observed that AmAChE1 is rarely expressed in summer while highly expressed in winter. Through additional experiments, the expression of AmAChE1 was suggested to be associated with brood rearing status. Under the assumption that abnormal suppression of brood rearing activity may result in stressful condition in honey bee social community, it was further suggested that AmAChE1 is likely involved in stress management particularly during winter. We hypothesized that the increased docility usually observed in overwintering bees is likely an outcome of stress management in colony, which is mediated by AmAChE1 expression. To verify this, worker bees expressing abundant AmAChE1 were collected in early winter and injected with Amace1 dsRNA to knockdown Amace1. Then, the behavioral activity of the bees was investigated using the EthoVison video tracking system. Honey bees injected with Amace1 dsRNA showed significantly increased motility, which was strongly correlated with the suppressed expression level of AmAChE1 in the abdomen. No apparent reduced expression of AmAChE1 in the head was observed perhaps due to the limited efficacy of RNA interference in the blood-brain-barrier. Our finding suggests that behavioral activity can be regulated, at least, by AmAChE1 expression level in non-neuronal tissue (i.e., fatbody) perhaps via metabolic alteration.

Biological control has been tried for integrated pest management. It is often comparable, safe, and environment-friendly, making itself an alternative for chemical agents. Filamentous microorganisms, i.e., fungi and streptomystes, produce many kinds of useful metabolites, and some of them have been developed as a biocontrol agent. However, they still have a long way because of the concern of manufacturing cost. Therefore, process development was intensively studied to meet cost-effectiveness. Operating conditions of bioreactor, e.g., agitation and aeration, had an effect on biological and physiological responses such as mycelial morphology, oxygen and nutrient transfer. Understanding relationship between operating parameters and microbial responses in terms of growth, substrate and oxygen consumption, and production yield was critical for process development. This study dedicated to build strategies for mass production of biological control agent using aerobic filamentous microorganisms.

The online game market has rapidly increased worldwide, especially in China. In 2012, the world game market equaled 111.7 billion. Many game companies compete by launching new online games in various genres. In 2010, Activision Blizzard reported that the World of Warcraft (WOW) is the world’s most popular online game. Chinese gamers constitute more than half of WOW’s 10 million users. Korea is the second largest gaming market. Thus many foreign game companies target Korea and China, in competition with domestic game companies. The purposes are 1) to understand the role of country of origin and /or brand image in game consumer behavior, 2) to find out the difference of game evaluation between game users in China and Korea, and 3) to draw strategic implication game marketers. Consumers expect products from advanced countries to provide superior performance, so they often look to country of origin in evaluating products. Recently, consumers have looked to brand image as another key element in product evaluation. In this research, we study whether gamers evaluate games on the basis of country of origin and/or brand image. In this paper, we add to the gaming research and suggest that the online game market has three dimensions. First, online games are products. Second, online games are service. Last, online games are entertainment. Data collection resulted in 355 usable responses from online game (LOL) users in Korea(166) and China(189). We conduct factor analysis and reliability analysis to check reliability and validity. Country of Origin is the key element for product evaluation of utilitarian goods but it doesn’t have significant effect on product evaluation of hedonic products which mainly provide sensual pleasure, fantasy, and fun to customers such as luxury goods or online game (Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2000).

Background : Angelica gigas is a monocarpic perennial plant. A. gigas, also called DangGui or Korean Angelica, is a major medicinal herb used in Asian countries such as Korea, Japan and China. In Korea, we are using the roots of A. gigas. but, Chinese using Angelica sinensis and Japanese using Angelica acutiloba with the same name 'DangGui'. The biggest problem in the use of A. gigas is the confusion with A. acutiloba or A. sinensis. This confusion can cause an medical accident or lack of pharmacological ingredients. In this study, we developed chloroplast InDel markers that can distinguish A. gigas, A. acutiloba or A. sinensis. Methods and Results : We collected 14 Angelica plant samples including A. gigas, A. acutiloba and A. sinensis and extrated DNA using CTAB method. The DNA was diluted to 10 ng/㎕ and kept -20℃. We designed the primer sets using CLC Main Workbench based on chloroplast DNA InDel region of between A. gigas and A. acutiloba. PCR were performed on the 14 Angelica plant samples including A. gigas, A. acutiloba and A. sinensis (5 repeats each). Electrophoresis was performed using fragment analyzer automated CE system. We designed 6 InDel primer sets and the primer sets amplified the amplicons effectively. Three of the 6 primer sets showed polymorphism. Conclusion : We could distinguish A. gigas, A. acutiloba, and A. sinensis using 2 newly developed InDel markers.

Platycodon grandiflorum A. is a perennial plant belongs to Campanulaceae family. This plant has been used herbal medicine ingredient in East Asia. Because of the high saponin content, it is an economically important medicinal plant in Korea. It has been reported that saponins of P. grandiflorum were mainly synthesized in root tissues. The studies about root growth of the plant were few. Expansin is an important protein playing a role in root growth of plants, and is known as a nonenzymatic protein. Expansins are novel plant cell wall loosening proteins leading to turgor-driven cell extension. Expansin encoding genes exist in multigene family, and there are more than 30 genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. and more than 50 genes in Oryaza sativa. Therefore, identification of the genes was difficult in P. grandiflorum because of the lack of genome sequence. Recently, the development of next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies make it possible to obtain the target genes sequences rapidly and precisely. In this study, to identify the expansin encoding genes in P. grandiflorum, we used RNA-seq analysis with Illumina HiSeq platform. We analyzed whole transcriptome of P. grandiflorum through the RNA-seq analysis based on next generation seuqencing. CLC Genomics Workbench software (Clc Bio inc.) was used for assembly. We assembled 122,663 contigs and search 123 contigs were identified from the search using 61 expansin gene

The use of agricultural by-products as alternative nutrient sources in crop production had gained popularity in order to reducing the rate of chemical fertilizer application in the field. This study was conducted to determine whether the application of rice milling by-products treated with yeast inoculants could substitute, or reduce the rate of chemical fertilizer application. The results of agronomic measurements showed that the effect of incorporated materials was not immediate, as compared to 100% chemical fertilizer application. However, grain yield and quality was either the same or greater than 100% chemical fertilizer application. It was found out that expanded rice hull (treated with yeast or not) could reduce the rate of applying chemical fertilizers by half. Also, yeast treatment was only favorable only to expanded rice hull and not with rice bran, and was already found to be a potential material in reducing chemical fertilizer application in rice production.